Qatar
Petroleum and Sasol Chevron plan GTL expansion
Posted: 29 March 2004
Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Sasol Chevron announced plans to evaluate
the expansion of ORYX GTL from 34,000 barrels per day (bbl/day)
to 100,000 bbl/day.
ORYX GTL Expansion
QP and Sasol Chevron have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
for the ORYX GTL Expansion project and have discussed the technical
and business principles that will support the planned increase in
the output of the foundation plant to 100,000 bbl/day. This will
involve defining the feasibility of a three (3) train, 65,000 bbl/day
facility with an expected start up by 2009.
QP and Sasol Chevron have also signed a Letter of Intent (LOI)
to examine GTL Base Oils opportunities in Qatar.
Integrated Project
In addition, QP and Sasol Chevron have agreed to pursue the opportunity
to develop a 130,000 bbl/day upstream/downstream integrated GTL
project based on the Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate Process and utilising
resources from the North Field. This will involve defining the feasibility
of a six (6) train facility with an expected start up by 2010. These
efforts will lead to the establishment of a Heads of Agreement (HOA)
for the project.
The combined plan will represent an investment of more than $6
billion, making it one of the most significant developments in the
global GTL industry to date.
These ventures will build on the technical and operational expertise
already established through the development of both ORYX GTL and
the EGTL facility in Nigeria. The Integrated Project will also utilise
the comprehensive upstream capabilities of ChevronTexaco.
At the announcement ceremony today in Doha, His Excellency Abdullah
Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Energy and Industry of Qatar said:
“I welcome these projects and I welcome the participation
of Sasol Chevron. We are working hard to realise the ambition of
the State of Qatar to become the GTL capital of the world and these
projects will make an important contribution to achieving that aim.”
Mr. Pat Davies, a Director of Sasol Chevron and Executive Director
of Sasol, said: “Sasol is delighted to build on the success
of the Oryx GTL venture and with QP and our joint venture, Sasol
Chevron, we aim to develop a substantial GTL business in Qatar utilizing
our unique technology.”
Mr. John Gass, Chairman of Sasol Chevron and President of ChevronTexaco
Global Gas, said: “The pursuit of these opportunities builds
upon the solid foundation already established from QP and Sasol’s
original GTL plant and reinforces ChevronTexaco’s commitment
to building a GTL business as an integral part of our Global Gas
strategy. This is an impressive slate of GTL projects and through
Sasol Chevron we are eager to work with QP to develop superclean
liquid fuels from natural gas and to help advance Qatar’s
stated ambition to become the GTL capital of the world.”
Mr. George Couvaras, Chief Executive of Sasol Chevron Consulting
Limited said: “That Sasol Chevron can call on the extensive
resources, expertise and experience of both its parents gives us
a major advantage in expanding ORYX GTL and delivering a top class,
fully integrated project. We at Sasol Chevron are looking forward
to building on the excellent working relationship that Qatar Petroleum
and Sasol have already established and to delivering the high quality
business and project performance that is already accepted as standard
for ORYX GTL.”
“We recognise that an important aspect of the State of Qatar’s
diversification strategy is the development of world scale GTL plants
utilising resources from the North Field. Sasol Chevron has been
pursuing GTL and other opportunities in Qatar as a high strategic
priority in order to develop ventures for the mutual benefit of
the State of Qatar, QP and Sasol Chevron.”
Sasol Chevron
Sasol Chevron was established in October 2000 as a 50/50
joint venture to actively pursue commercial application of GTL technology
for selected Chevron (Now ChevronTexaco) and Sasol-held reserves
of natural gas; third-party gas reserves and host countries seeking
to monetize their gas reserves. GTL will be produced using the Sasol
Slurry Phase Distillate process (SPD).
ChevronTexaco
Currently celebrating its 125th anniversary, ChevronTexaco is the
second-largest U.S.-based energy company and the fifth largest in
the world, based on market capitalization.
More than 50,000 ChevronTexaco employees work in approximately
180 countries around the world, producing and transporting crude
oil and natural gas, and marketing and distributing fuels and other
energy products.
ChevronTexaco is based in San Ramon, California. ChevronTexaco
is one of the world's largest producers and marketers of natural
gas, producing approximately 4.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas
a day and is pursuing GTL projects in Qatar and Nigeria.
Sasol
Sasol, with a market capitalization of approximately USD 7 billion,
is an integrated oil and gas group with substantial chemical interests.
Based in South Africa and operating in 15 other countries throughout
the world, Sasol is the leading provider of liquid fuels in South
Africa and a major international producer of chemicals, using a
world leading technology for the commercial production of synthetic
fuels and chemicals from low grade coal.
In the future Sasol expects to apply this technology to convert
natural gas to diesel and chemicals. Sasol manufactures over 200
fuel and chemical products that are sold in more than 90 countries
and also operates coal mines to provide feedstock for synthetic
fuels and chemical plants.
The company also manufactures and markets synthesis gas and operates
the only inland crude oil refinery in South Africa. www.sasol.com
The Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD) process
This a commercially proven proprietary Sasol technology for converting
natural gas into liquid hydrocarbon products in three steps:
1. Utilising competitive reforming technology developed by, and
licensed from, Haldor Topsøe of Denmark, the main component
of natural gas, methane, is reacted with oxygen over a catalyst
to form syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
2. Using the Fischer-Tropsch conversion process in the Sasol Slurry
Phase reactor, syngas is reacted over Sasol's proprietary cobalt
catalyst to form liquid hydrocarbons - condensates and waxy syncrude.
3. Chevron's proprietary Isocracking process is used to upgrade
the waxy syncrude by separating heavier molecules and rearranging
them so they become liquid. This process yields a lighter, premium-grade
fuel such as synthetic fuels and naphtha, that contain virtually
no sulphur or aromatics.
For more information see http://www.chevrontexaco.com
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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