By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 2 -- Syntroleum Corp., Tulsa, and Oil Search Ltd., Sydney, agreed to a cooperative, joint feasibility study examining the costs to build and operate a gas-to-liquids barge in Papua New Guinea using Syntroleum's proprietary GTL synthetic fuels technology.
The study is expected to take 3-4 months. The conceptual design includes gas processing to extract NGLs in advance of the GTL section that would produce a nominal 20,000 b/d of total liquids.
Syntroleum developed the GTL barge concept based upon criteria first explored under contract with the US Department of Defense and later adapted to commercial specifications (OGJ Online, Mar. 1, 2004).
Oil Search produces oil and natural gas in Papua New Guinea. It is estimated that up to 170 MMscfd of gas feedstock would be required for the proposed GTL barge near the Gulf of Papua.