Botswana: Coal-to-liquids cogeneration planned

Coal Petroleum, a consortium of United Refineries Botswana (URB) and South African investment house Kumvest, has announced that it is developing a 20,000 b/d coal-to-liquids project in Francistown, to produce oil derivative products and fertiliser and generate up to 304MW of electricity for the power-starved grid. The giant project is expected to cost $4.2bn and be completed in three phases to 2020, eventually reaching 50,000 b/d. The plant will be developed as an independent power producer (IPP) but, as electricity will be produced using coal-derived gas, it will not be bid into the long-delayed coal IPP procurement process.