Leigh Creek Energy (LCK) has made a final investment decision (FID) for stage one of its flagship project in South Australia.
Managing director Phil Staveley said the FID milestones gives the company approval to construct everything it needs in stage one of the Leigh Creek Energy project (LCEP) and start earning revenue.
“Over the past year, our team has been busily working towards achieving stage one FID. Having completed the project pre-feasibility study and been awarded a petroleum production licence by the South Australian Government for the commercial production, this FID approval demonstrates the board’s confidence in the economic and commercial viability of the project,” Staveley said.
“The company will now move ahead and build on the EPCM contracts and commencement works announced earlier in February with full-scale stage one procurement, construction and commercialisation activities.”
With stage one FID approval, LCK can now commence placing orders with suppliers for long lead items and specialty process equipment items.
Prudentia Process Consulting and the LCK engineering team are working diligently and the first deliverables are expected ahead of schedule.
Stage one commercial development of the LCEP will comprise drilling up to five new syngas wells and installing a power plant capable of generating up to 5 megawatts.
In addition, the first stage will consolidate LCK’s proprietary gasification technology, capacity and intellectual property.
The $2.6 billion LCEP is set to develop a low-cost nitrogen-based fertiliser for local and export agricultural markets.