The first U.S. coal gasification and liquefaction plant in West Virginia is planned for a site in Marshall County.  CONSOL subsidiary Terra Firma Company will work with Synthesis Energy Systems, Incorporated to develop the $800 million site near Benwood.

Governor Joe Manchin was part of Monday's official announcement for the project that could generate between 300 and 500 jobs during construction and more than 60 permanent jobs once construction is finished.  "We're going to have two or three products coming from this process and we're excited," the Governor said on Monday's MetroNews Talkline.

The plan calls for coal from CONSOL's Shoemaker site to be converted to syngas using SES technology.

"The project has the potential to transform West Virginia from a major coal producing state to a national energy center as well," CONSOL Energy President and CEO J. Brett Harvey said in a statement released on Monday morning.

The syngas is expected to produce 720,000 metric tons per year of methanol that the chemical industry could then use.  The plant will also be designed with capabilities to convert methanol production to about 100 million gallons a year of 87 octane gasoline.

"This will be the first large scale commercial plant of its kind in the country with premier companies running it such as CONSOL and SES," says Governor Manchin.

As part of a memorandum of understanding with the State of West Virginia and the Regional Economic Development Partnership, financing and tax incentives will be provided to the project over ten years.

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller says it's an important development for a particular part of West Virginia.  "I really like the fact that it's up here in the Northern Panhandle where coal, like steel, always seems to be nervous about it's future and the people are nervous."

CONSOL and SES are working on a design for the site, called the front-end engineering design package.  The FEED will include a carbon management strategy that will likely focus on carbon sequestration in a deep saline aquifer.  Permit applications will come later.