Gas to Liquid
Commencement of Operations Started 28/12/2006
The strategy of GTL Resources plc is to produce liquids such as methanol and ethanol from stranded gas, corn and other feedstocks with quality counterparties. GTL manages all aspects of a project: finance, feedstock supply, production and marketing.

In line with its strategy of seeking to develop and exploit markets for alternative fuels, GTL has, since the beginning of 2001, concentrated primarily upon developing methanol projects, principally in Australia, and, more recently, ethanol project work. The Board has recognised the strategic benefits of acquiring a cash generative asset on a shorter time scale than the typical methanol construction time of three years. In furtherance of this strategy, on 6 September 2005 GTL Resources acquired a controlling interest in Illinois River Energy (IRE) to build an ethanol plant at Rochelle, Illinois, through its wholly owned subsidiary, GTL USA, which has been established for the purpose of investing in ethanol projects in the USA. GTL USA has invested in IRE by way of a subscription for units of IRE pursuant to the Unit Purchase Agreement.

This project has the advantage that the Plant is expected to produce revenues on a shorter time scale and at a significantly lower capital cost than the methanol plant in Australia.

The Company intends to further expand within the ethanol industry in the United States or other suitable markets by selective acquisition of low cost production facilities. The Company sees itself as a potential consolidator of ethanol plants in a particularly fragmented market.

FT Tip
GTL Resources, an Aim-listed company. It raised money to build an ethanol plant in the US. Raw materials costs have risen but the price of ethanol has gone through the roof. The earnings potential should be spectacular.

New Plant

Construction started at Rochelle, Illinois site in September and production from the 50 million gallon per annum ethanol plant is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2006. Following unusually mild weather in Illinois the project has progressed well and is on schedule and on budget. Whilst the Companys main efforts centre on the successful delivery of the US ethanol project at Rochelle, the potential expansion of that site to 100 million gallons is being investigated. In addition and consistent
with GTLs stated strategy for the expansion of its interests in the ethanol industry, other ethanol opportunities have also been identified and will be analysed. Pictures Of The Site Under Construction March 27, 2006 http://www.illinoisriverenergy.com/html/construction.html


Arden
http://gtlresources.com/documents/ArdenAnalystResearchNote.pdf
http://www.gtlresources.com/documents/ArdenAnalystResearchNote.pdf
BBC News Item On Ethanol
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4940000/newsid_4948400/bb_wm_4948456.stm

Ethanol Priceshttp://ethanolmarket.aghost.net/
Ethanol as a Transportation Fuel
http://energy.ca.gov/afvs/vehicle_fact_sheets/ethanol.html

Annual report for 2006
http://www.gtlresources.com/documents/GTLAnnualReport2006_001.pdf
Pics from Ethanol Producer Magazine of GTL's plant.
http://ethanolproducer.com/plant-images.jsp?plant_id=302&image_id=59
Commencement of Operations Started 28/12/2006
http://www.gtlresources.com/
Economics of Ethanol
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/ID/ID-339.pdf
2 July 2007 GTL Resources FY pretax loss narrows, plans 13 mln stg placing to fund expansion
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200707020705014067Z.html
GTL Web Site
http://www.gtlresources.com/

laurie, i think your sources have failed you...

Looks like and I still haven't had a reply which is unusual.

spitfire&cynic Renewable sources,just think what our farmers could do by growing the crops required, far better than the the struggle they have to bear to survive in their present market. Perhaps no one has asked them! maybe GTL should think about it .They could import 1000,of tones,from the UK. We have the power and the water supply.

Unfortunately we haven't enough land in the UK for really large scale production, that's why it's more popular in France, USA and Brazil. GTL have set up production in Illinous, which is in the middle of Maize producing area to cut down on transport cost, so they wouldn't have to import any additional Maize.

For Maize prodution the UK isn't ideal, our summers are still too cool even with global warming, and we do seem to have water restrictions most years in the Southern Counties.

and as i keep repeating, the land used for growing maize (swathes more Amazon rainforest to be demolished no doubt!) not only gets swiftly impoverished without the input of tons and tons of nitrates and other wonderful synthetic fertilisers, but it also means it is taken out of use for more human-beneficial crops.

cant PHC help?

Yes they can, but they need to get their salesmen onto it.

PHC?

and whats happened to the ethanol graph, doesn't seem to be updating again, and its missing the current price from it on the right hand side.

Website update imminent!
Text took longer to clear with lawyers than I hoped. The performance update is being put on the website as I type this. Should be there from 12.30
Regards Peter

Having commenced production on 27 December 2006, the plant subsequently passed its acceptance tests by 16 January 2007.

This included producing at above nameplate capacity of 50 million gallons per annum (mgpa) over a 7 day period.

Whilst these are still early days for the plant, February's output exceeded nameplate on 24 out of 28 days and the month's 49mgpa was above a budget set to allow a continuous build up in rates.

Run rates will continue to be safely increased and the Company believes that February's maximum days output of an annualized 54 mgpa.augurs well for the future.

Both supply and marketing arrangements are operating smoothly with corn,distillers grains and ethanol stocks being comfortably held within expected operating limits.

To date the majority of the plants output has been sold to the local Chicago market and DDGs have taken advantage of local container yards to export at attractive prices to the Far East.

The Company continues to enjoy corn prices significantly below the current market prices as the result of its derivatives transactions which as previously stated are in place for 95% for the year's nameplant corn requirements.

Sounds like good news to me, with any luck we will get a rise this afternoon.

Been away from the thread for a couple of days. Whilst catching up I read a lot of posts about people's cars having problems after filling up with petrol from Tesco and Morrisons. Posters were speculating that the problem might be due to the fact that Tesco add ethanol to there petrol.

Now I am sure that you all know that the reason for these motoring problems has since emerged to be the fact that there was excess silicone in the petrol and had nothing to do with ethanol. [Note to all you news channels: its silicone with an 'e', a polymer containing silicon, and not silicon, the semi-conducting element, as I keep hearing being reported].

I know that I am now informing you all of old news, but since nobody had mentioned it, I thought it best to mention just to put that little bit of mis-information to bed.

Jones, PHC is Plant Healthcare, which makes a new product which helps increase the yield of crops.

ghjones2
The corn and ethanol graphs are a bit of a pain if any one can find some better one post the link and I will put them in the header.

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CN/M

Not sure if its the same one or not !! :))

ethanol http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/AC/W

smiler
Cheers but I think the ones in the header are more accurate and I can't get your ones smaller.

The wife has the same problem :) What about this one !

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ENT.L

Its not the right chart but may be one to add !

also http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/66.html

finally - a decent day in the life of GTL!

Laurie Squash

Well done with your contact for the update, never doubted you.

12.5p up today with strong buying.