Spitfire oil’s Australian win

Bermuda-based Spitfire Oil has produced the first oil from its new Australia-based test reactor, designed to convert low-grade coal into oil. The company plans to convert its current resource of 500 million tonnes of lignite at Salmon Gums, Western Australia, into at least 200 million barrels of oil. The expected production capacity is 20,000 barrels of oil per day from Western Australia’s first low-carbon-footprint coal-to-liquids business. The estimated capital expenditure on the project, up to fully operational capacity, is about $1.3bn.