Does South Africa Have The Answer To Peak Oil?

While oil prices rise above $115/barrel industry companies are looking to alternatives. But some of the alternatives burn dirtier than oil. One of these is coal-to-oil technology. . Sasol officials acknowledge their facilities emit greenhouse gases and that building more coal-to-liquids facilities around the world "could have potentially significant implications, in the long run, for our commitment to reducing carbon intensity," according to a recent company report on its social and environmental programs.
To be fair, Sasol does have future plans with newer technologies which they claim will trap carbon dioxide instead of emitting it but their projection is only a 10% decrease in pollutants by 2015.
Sasol's share price has more than tripled over the past three years. Analysts estimate it earned about $2 billion in the year ended June 30, about 35 percent higher than the year before -- such a sharp rise that South African authorities are contemplating a "windfall tax" on the company.
Coal-to-oil’s technology is tainted. It started in Germany in the 1920’s ad it was used to fuel the Nazi war machine in the 1930s and 1940s. International oil companies also experimented with the process but put it aside because oil was cheaper.
South Africa took a different view. The country lacked oil, but had enormous deposits of coal, much of which had limited market value because of its poor quality. In 1950, the government set up Sasol as a state-owned company and authorized funding for its first project, a coal-to-liquids facility called Sasolburg in the South African countryside.
When oil prices soared in the 1970s, South African officials decided to up the ante. They lent Sasol $6 billion to build two new facilities at Secunda -- each 10 times as large as Sasolburg. The government also privatized the company, listing it on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1979. (The government maintains a 23.5 percent stake).
A growing focus for Sasol is marketing its technology overseas. The company first tried to do so in the 1990s, after apartheid ended, but executives found doors slammed in their faces. Oil was trading for less than $25 a barrel at the time. "We sat in corridors waiting for meetings that never happened because they didn't even know who Sasol was," recalls Pat Davies, Sasol's chief executive.
Sasol made its first inroads in countries such as Qatar that have big stockpiles of hard-to-transport natural gas. These countries were interested in Sasol's technology for turning natural gas into liquid fuel.
In marketing materials produced for Chinese government officials and investors, Sasol offers a simple message: By 2015, 70 percent of China's oil imports will come from the Middle East. Yet the country has coal reserves equivalent to more than half the oil in the Middle East.
Sasol officials say they're interested in Montana and other potential sites in the U.S., provided they can find a suitable partner and receive tax or other incentives. Coal-to-oil "is coming to the United States," Gov. Schweitzer proclaims. When it does, he says, other countries "will be scrambling to protect their oil supplies -- and we'll be energy independent."
So, while Sasol is making a killing what does the average South African citizen do in order to fight back against inflation and rapidly rising gas prices? There is a solution.
WATER4GAS is offering information at a low price which people can use at home to build a small assembly which instills hydrogen into the gasoline/air mixture that their automobile runs on.
With WATER4GAS you can minimumly expect to reduce your fuel consumption by thirty to fifty percent or significantly more. With W4G gasoline is made consumable so you can reduce your fuel consumption.
It also helps make emissions significantly cleaner.Happy members number about 99%! Isn't it your turn now?

Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com

Entrepreneur, songwriter, activist and consumer advocate, GARKO, shows you how to save up to 35% or more at the gas pump and that you can save on fuel consumption by making your car run on water For a list of current fuel prices in your neighborhood email garko@startlingdiscoveries.info

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