Angels? You Decide.
Angels? You Decide.
Last weekend I managed to get a leave pass to head off with a few of my QER and ex-QER mates and our trusty steeds for an overnight at the beautiful Royal Hotel at Gayndah.
It was a great trip. I’ve never seen the country looking so green.
One of the things it reminded me of, is what a big country this is. It’s possible to drive for half an hour or more on our roads out west, without seeing another vehicle.
Despite our small population, Australia has a massive network of roads to maintain, to keep our communities connected and get our goods to market.
That’s one of the reasons that QER has recently been looking at the potential for producing bitumen as a co-product of our transport fuel production.
It’s still early stages, but we know from work in Colorado that kerogen-based oil can produce a very high-quality, long lasting bitumen product.
Last year, Australia imported 900,000 tonnes of bitumen. That represents a significant cost to the country and exposes us to the risks associated with relying on imports.
Next year at QER, we’ll be producing some test samples of bitumen from our resource here in Gladstone. Who knows… one of these days I might get to guide the Harley over some of the home-grown product!