SNC Lavalin and DKRW Advanced Fuels Form Alliance

DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC, headquartered in Houston, Texas and SNC-Lavalin GDS, Inc. of Houston and SNC-Lavalin Constructors Inc. of Bothell, Washington, wholly owned subsidiaries of SNC-Lavalin, announced today that they have formed an alliance to develop, design and construct a number of coal-to-liquid fuel projects each valued in excess of a billion dollars.

Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC (MBF&P), a wholly owned subsidiary of DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (DKRW), has awarded a contract to SNC-Lavalin GDS, Inc. and SNC-Lavalin Constructors Inc. to provide feasibility studies, front end engineering and design (FEED) services, and turnkey engineering procurement construction (EPC) contractor services for DKRW's future coal-to-liquid projects. The Medicine Bow, Wyoming coal-to-liquid project's FEED is expected to commence during the 4th Quarter 2006.

Robert Kelly, Executive Officer of DKRW and MBF&P, stated, "We selected SNC-Lavalin because of its process engineering expertise in gasification and syngas conversion to fuels, its experience in thermal power plants and for its extensive experience with oil sands in northern Alberta from which we expect to learn a great deal about designing and building a facility of this size in a rather remote region of Wyoming. This selection now enables us to move forward with the design and permitting of the facility. We anticipate there will be significant knowledge gained from Medicine Bow that can be profitably applied to subsequent coal-to-liquid fuel projects."

"We are pleased that DKRW and MBF&P have selected us for this important project, and for selecting SNC-Lavalin as its strategic partner in its coal-to-liquids business," said Jim Walters, President of SNC-Lavalin GDS. "This project is a natural match for SNC-Lavalin's corporate strategic position in coal-to-liquids, oil sand processing and gasification given our strong process engineering core resource in gasification, gas clean-up, synthesis gas production of fuels and product finishing that is augmented by strong project management and controls. We can also count on our close working relationship with our Thermal Power division, which will allow us to provide the resources and project needs of the Medicine Bow project through its various phases."

"We are excited to be working with DKRW in conjunction with SNC-Lavalin GDS on this project," said John Gillis, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of SNC-Lavalin Constructors. "The technology and process for this coal-to-liquids project is another way to reduce our dependency on foreign oil for production of power generation and transportation fuel, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

In previous announcements, MBF&P announced it has selected GE to provide its coal gasification technology and Rentech, Inc. to provide their proprietary Fischer-Tropsch technology for the project that will initially make about 11,000 bbl/day of transport diesel and other fuels using high Btu, low sulfur coal from the Carbon Basin Coal Reserve from a mine being developed and operated by Arch Coal. Diesel and other transport fuels will be sold to regional customers along with the carbon dioxide, sulfur and other byproducts.

DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC is engaged in developing, managing, and owning projects that utilize coal gasification technology, utilizing coal-to-liquids, methanation and integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technologies. The Medicine Bow, Wyoming project employs coal gasification, coal-to-liquids and IGCC technologies.

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Posted 21/08/06

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