With oil prices at historic highs, China is moving full steam ahead with a controversial process to turn its vast coal reserves into barrels of oil. Known as coal-to-liquid (CTL), the process is reviled by environmentalists who say it causes excessive greenhouse gases. Yet the possibility of obtaining oil.-from coal and being fuel self-sufficient is enticing to coal-rich coun-tries seeking to secure their ; energy supply in an age of increased debate about how long the world's oil reserves can continue to meet demand. The US, Australia and India are among those countries looking at CTL technology but are constrained by environmental concerns associated with the process which releases excessive amounts of carbon gases into the atmosphere and consumes huge amounts of water. But China, .which lacks the powerful environmental lobbyists that might stymie any widescale initiative elsewhere, is building a major complex on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. "Those countries with large coal reserves,' like South Africa, China or the US, are very keen on CTL as it helps ensure energy security," said Mr Yuichiro Shimura, at Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc. in Tokyo. "However, the problem is that it creates a lot of carbon dioxide. Also you need a huge amount of energy for liquefaction, which means you end up wasting quite a lot of energy," the chief consultant at MRI in charge of energy, said. In Erdos, Inner Mongolia, about 10,000 workers are putting the final touches to a CTL plant that will be run by state-owned Shenhua , Group, China's biggest coal mine.