The team from Merrill Lynch that was advising on the Sweetwater project was based in the World Trade Tower, and Gibson said it took at least a month to recreate the documentation to the stage it was at pre September 11.

He said that setback was just being overcome when another disaster in the shape of the Enron collapse loomed. Enron was one of the Sweetwater project's financiers.

Despite these setbacks, and also setting straight some scuttlebutt he'd heard that "Syntroleum was having problems selling its products", Gibson said the project was all systems go and gave an outline of the status of the 11,000 barrel per day (bpd) specialty products plant.

He said with the turnkey EPC contract with European contractors, RWE, and an operations and maintenance contract with the Clough PGS venture, the plant was expected online in 2005.

He said that both federal and state government assistance in the form of an A$30 million infrastructure grant (mainly for desalination facilities), A$40 million 25 year interest free loan and an A$30 million licence grant had played major parts in getting the project to this stage.

The RWE contract was a fixed price, lump sum, A$1.18 billion dollars. Gibson outlined a 32-month construction phase which would see over 1000 workers on site with a permanent workforce in excess of 150.

A study by consulting firm, Access Economics, put a net present value economic benefit of the project at A$3.7 billion. This included employment, income and tax revenue over the life of the project.

Gibson said Syntroleum was now finalising the equity partners in the project prior to obtaining the appropriate funding.