Yes an engineer but lets call it a TECH Engineer. Compressed air technology is its main business, develops industrial air compressors and Gas seals and whats more it provides them for the OIL and GAS industry.
Very close to commercialisation now with its compressors and seals and todays deal ( see below ) should bring that very close.

Charges upfront payments, continuing royalties and development contracts so revenues are not lumpy.

It as a market cap circa off the top of my head 20 million(hope my calculator is now working) and as circa of 5 million cash on the books, very nice.

Some very big names as customers.

Heres todays announcement...........

Corac Group Plc
26 May 2004


For Immediate Release 26 May 2004


Corac Group plc ('Corac')

Joint Industry Programme for Downhole Gas Compression

Corac, the intellectual property and licensing company specialising in
compressor technology, is pleased to announce the signature today of a Joint
Industry Programme ('JIP') for the development of its unique, patented downhole
gas compression technology.

Following the recent successful completion of a Shell funded feasibility study
which evaluated both the technical and economic viability of the technology,
considerable industry interest has been generated, culminating in the addition
of a further four major international oil and gas operators to the project.

The participants of the JIP comprise ConocoPhillips, ENI, Husky Energy,
Repsol-YPF as well as Shell, all of whom have gas assets worldwide which they
believe could benefit from this game changing technology. As well as covering
the development costs for the next phase, the participants will also make
substantial resource available to ensure the final product specification meets
the requirements of the industry.

Corac's downhole gas compression concept involves the coupling together of a
number of axial compressor modules in a single compression train for
installation in the well bore in close proximity to a gas reservoir. In this
location, a modest uplift in pressure results in a very significant increase in
gas production compared with conventional methods using surface compression,
thereby accelerating gas production and cash flow from a producing asset.
Potential production rate enhancement of up to 40% has been demonstrated through
the application of downhole gas compression during a number of gas field case
studies carried out over recent months.

Placing the compressor downhole could also have the effect of being able to
lower the reservoir abandonment pressure which in turn would materially increase
the ultimate recovery from a gas field, thereby further enhancing the economic
benefit from the installation of this novel application of existing technology.

Phase 1 of the JIP is scheduled for completion by the end of 2004, with further
engineering and development work leading to the manufacture and testing of a
prototype downhole in a producing gas well within the following two years.

Commenting on the JIP, Professor Gerry Musgrave, Chairman, said:

'The support from such eminent oil and gas companies vindicates Corac's
development to date of the downhole gas compression project and gives the Group
another product line to bring to the market using its core technologies. It is
the start of a major business development opportunity which is expected to have
significant international ramifications throughout the upstream natural gas
industry.'ENDS.

Although loss making at the moment it shouldnt be very long before this one turns the corner.

Outlook

The Company has a loyal, talented workforce dedicated to the innovation and
exploitation of the technology. Successful trials have demonstrated the
commercial performance in Corac's industrial air compressor and its seals. The
Board is striving to deliver the right manufacturing and sales licences which
will yield the best returns in the long term.

We are confident that a number of deals, which have been subject to recent
intensive negotiation, will be successfully concluded in the near term.

Short to medium term investment, and anyone interested should DYOR and please remember you are responsible for the timing of your buying and selling actions.

cheers GF.

THE COUNT--->ALL

OK, I have put the finishing touches to my report. This 4th part is the final section but it may not say quite as much as the previous ones, but for the sake of completeness, I post it.

I especially like the section on LNG and the possible 10 applications so far. This obviously looks like a further area of great promise for CRA.

Regards,

THE COUNT!


PART 4

Other applications

Q) What added benefits can CRA technology bring to industrial refrigeration?

A) We offer total enclosure and can deal with any gas. Apparently no current industrial refrigeration unit can offer total enclosure.

And once again, the overall size of our units comes into play as well.


Q) What size is this market?

A) The market is $10 billion in size.



Q) How far have you got in commercialising this technology? Who are you talking to?

A) There are about 5 big players in the world and we will not progress any further with this unless we have one of those firmly on board. We are currently talking with one potential partner and there is a second showing initial interest, but this is not CRA's highest priority at the moment, given all the action with DGC and IA elsewhere.

But as always, talking with big companies almost invariably means very slow progress....but nevertheless, we are talking.

In the recent past, we were talking to a company that was very interested in progressing this, but the talks lasted about 6 weeks before they were bought out by a Japanese company.



Q) What sort of other areas could we eventually deploy our compressor technology to? Are any of these off the drawing board at all?

A) He spoke, with what seemed great excitement about using our technology in the area of Liquefication of Natural Gas (=LNG). In fact, this now, with hindsight, looks absolutely awesome as a technology in itself . I do know for instance, that gas can be transported over distances now by liquefying it (using our technology as an example) and thus reducing its volume to a tenth of what it was. Our units can liquefy gas too.

CRA have identified, within this area alone, at least TEN different applications. He then proceeded to describe just 2 of them. The advantages our machine could give here, apart from the energy saving ones, is that our units are totally enclosed and are much smaller than current LNG technologies physically.

They are talking to a number of fairly large players in some areas already.

i) In the USA for example, a real hot topic of conversation recently, given the surges in oil prices, has been to extract coal bed methane. This is methane gas that exists in geological strata in and around their coalfields. This gas stretches over many miles... hundreds of square miles I think he said. Currently, to extract this, you need to drill holes in the ground, you then would need mini gasometers over each and also pipework stretching over hundreds of miles. This is quite impractical and there would be gas leaks with lots of pong wafting off into the atmosphere and possibly polluting nearby communities too. our units are sealed with no gas leaks. We could utilise a small CRA unit at the mouth of each 'well' and liquefy the methane and store it in small barrel like containers until a big tanker comes round on a weekly basis and collects it.

But this is still early stage.

ii) When LNG is transported on big tankers over the ocean, the shaking of the liquid inside its containers (brought on by the waves and especially so in choppy seas), causes heat and thus re-gassification of some of the fluid. This results in pressure build ups which can be very dangerous. some 'naughty' countries, such as the Chinese, simply flare this off into the atmosphere. This obviously results in gas loss so costs them money, along with other environmenal issues. Other countries use current technology to reliquefy. Our units can sit within the liquid and if it has been a particularly choppy night on the high seas, with much shaking and therefore much regassification of the fluid, we can simply just speed up our uit to reliquefy more volume.

We are talking to a company currently and hopefully they will see the threat this will pose to them and force them to quickly sit down and come to some sort of deal with us.

So these are just 2 of 10 areas of application of our technology in the LNG field alone. This all came as a pleasant surprise to me.



Q) Can DGC inject gas downwell as well? If so, could this be used to inject excess CO2 downhole for example. If so, are you discussing this with anyone? I am sure governments would be very interested in this given the current political climate. Are there any advantages in using DGC for this over other methods?

A) They have talked to Portland Group on this, who are currently thinking of storing excess CO2 in big caves in Portman Bill (I think), but there doesn't seem to be any killer advantage to using our technology in this particular application. Surface compressors can be used for this to blow gas down a pipe.



Q) I have seen the Investors Chronicle mention Power Electronics product potential. Can you explain this and the sort of markets we could target?

A)Yes, there is certainly potential here. We are operating electronics quite comfortably in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees C. CRA have pioneered some of the packaging and they have minitiarised components too. These are power electronics for motors and there a a lot of possible applications.


General

Q) How long will the present cash last?

A) They have 2 years comfortably, and that doesn't include any new deals or sales. We also should receive the bulk of the payment for the ordered DGC in the present financial year.



Q) Up to what price do you think you can defend a hostile takeover at? Have you considered talking to some of your bigger shareholders to try and form some sort of defence mechanism against any hostile bid?

A) How long is a piece of string? Of course they would look to defend against anything they considered cheap, and they would talk to shareholders as par for the course.



Q)Within the legal small print of the JIP agreement, are there specific clauses which protect against any JIP partner making some sort of hostile bid approachafter all, they will be aware more than most, of the capabilities and potential value of the DGC?

A) In general, oil and gas majors do not buy companies like ours. Any bid approach is much more likely to come form a service company.



Q) Why was Sian Westerman employed and what contribution has she made so far? Do you also now understand why the shares fell when her appointment was announced?

A) I told him that I knew why the shares came off, but more importantly, did he? I said it's a pity they are not allowed to give out their RNS statements to real investors to proof read and give their immediate opinions. He said he really despaired as he is never allowed to say fully what he wants to say by the powers that be. Rothschild had the last word in what was said about Sian.

Sian is the MD of the equity arm of Rothschild. They have done a hell of a lot of work with BP, Shell and British Gas. She reaches to the very top of these companies....she can have dinner with the chairmen of these groups...and that is the level we need to have access to. The operational level is fine as far as contacts are concerned, and where presentations are made. But at the very top, Gerry said he could share his vision with these guys and they can help make things happen by overriding the MD and others below whose primary concern may be where their next bonus may be coming from and thus play safe.

She is a lawyer by training and so is very able to advise on things such as contracts.and has done so.

When he was casting the net out for another director, he got dozens of applications from ex senior employees of large corporates such as Shell, but he wasn't interested as they had spent most of their working lives working within very large corporations and this was not the experience he was after. Also people in the stockbroking business came forward, but again he wasn't interested. and then he was introduced to Sian.

After a couple of meetings and presentations, she thought our technology was wonderful but feared that because she did not know enough about the science and engineering, and that therefore, she might not be quite as useful as we might need. Gerry said 'nonsense...we don't need any more scientists and engineers'...and that was that basically.



Q) When you said you were holding up rather well in our recent phone chat, I couldn't help but feel that you might be lulled into a false sense of security. I knew that your SP was just a big house of cards in the very short term and that if you didn't deliver another JIP partner by the results, there would be a sell off. But I stayed quiet. Now you can see what your SP was built on....you can never take it for granted and you must now try to deliver much more regular newsflow. Your company reports need bulking up...they are far too minimalist. Stick some pics in there for example.

A) He basically accepted most of this but refused to give out RNS statements just for the sake of it as so many other companies on AIM seem to do. He said that an RNS should only really convey very material information, not an order, for example, for 3 IA products. He did say he would try and add more of the finer details via their website.

He accepted what I said about the company reports. But will they change anything...I don't know.


END OF REPORT.

while the latest RNS (see below) is nothing spectacular, i guess it indicates that the current field trials are at least gong well.



Corac Group plc (AIM: CRA), the intellectual property, engineering and licensing company specialising in compressor technology, is pleased to announce a Joint Development Agreement ('JDA') with Centrilift, a Baker Hughes company. The JDA is established to fulfil the requirements of the Joint Industry Programme field trials announced on 9 June 2008, where the first Downhole Gas Compressor ('DGC') unit will be deployed by Eni SpA in Italy.

Centrilift is the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of downhole power cables, connectors and electrical submersible pumps ('ESPs') for oil well applications. Under the terms of the JDA, Centrilift will adapt their cables and connectors used for their ESPs into equipment suitable for the Corac DGC. Their experienced personnel will form part of a joint team enabling both companies to refine their respective designs to achieve a production-ready system.

Following an initial twelve month period, Corac and Centrilift have agreed to enter into a joint marketing and licencing agreement to enable Centrilift to sell DGCs and related equipment into the international gas market through Baker Hughes' worldwide sales and support network.

nothing spectacular, just a tie up with the third largest services company in the world, ten a penny those sort of announcements!
LOL!

i know all about BH as they are a client of ours ..... however the tie up per se does not produce pennies ..... i am also uncertain of the meaning and implication of the "initial 12 month period" and when that starts and finishes

SP keeps drifting down perhaps in line with the market, but is no news good news?

actually the tie up does produce pennies, there is a release on CRA's web-site re the BH deal that gives slightly more detail

http://www.corac.co.uk/home/news/corac-announces-jda-with-baker-hughes

in which it states the deal gives CRA additiional income.
I understand this is a decent upfront payment, but not something BH wanted putting in the RNS.

re the 'initial 12 months', that has already started, a few months ago.
The meaning, or purpose of this, is for BH to design a production ready system of cabling and connectors etc
following this, BH will be selling and marketing DGC units on a world-wide basis. The deal includes things like minimum sales figures.
All in all, a very good deal indeed.

thank you for the elucidation ..... all we need now is for the "magic machine" to indeed perform as promised

that would be nice!
Given that they have been testing and modifying for around 18 mnoths now, the degree of confidence is very high, but nothing is guaranteed, ofcourse.
my own view is it will be a question of how well (no pun intended!) it works.
I feel sure that they can get the unit to perfrom adequately, just a question of how well it does from the outset and how long to fix any possible gremlins they might find.

Should shareholders be concerned if gas prices fall? At 1m a well would potential sales be affected?

Anyone remember Hoot ramping Corac at the grand national a few years ago? Classic!

Yes!

I've still got the clip!

Unfortunately it didn't do much for the share price. I seem to recall it being in the high 30's back then.

post it up - or email it to me for me to post up. would love to see it again.

G

Hi Gausie

I've emailed it to you.

Thanks N - will post it up.

If anyone's not seen it - this is Hoot at his very best on BBC1 ramping Corac at the grand national.....

If i top up anymore here they will have to release an RNS...!

something, possibly good, looks to be afoot ..... sp is up about 10% and IG shows trading against phone call only ...... in fact, that could mean that the share is in an auction phase or similar in the market ..... would have said suspension, buyt that would have given the wrong vibes!

cynic - neither suspended, nor auction according to L2. All 4 MMs moved up, shore, winterfloods and Kleinworts all moved about 10.30am. Cenkos (quoting lowest prices) moved @ 8.23am.

perhaps IG are just at their internal limit, or even a screen error .... anyway, more than happy to see sp +10% though + a lot more would be better!