Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) has begun construction of a third unit at its gas separation plant at Rayong in Central Thailand and is about to commission a plant at Khanom in the south.
State owned PTT is Thailand's sole producer of liquid petroleum gas and natural gas liquids. Ninety percent of its production goes to the domestic market, with some NGL exported.
A unit of Atlas Copco Group of Cos., Wayne, N.J., is to install a new turboexpander unit at the Rayong plant, where a similar unit has been in operation 9 years.
Two Rayong gas separation plants are in operation at present, with capacities of 350 and 250 MMcfd. Atlas Copco said a third Rayong unit, rated at 350 MMcfd, is due on stream by yearend. Its two main functions will be to:
- Reduce the pressure and temperature of natural gas to facilitate separation of methane.
- Raise the pressure of methane after it leaves the fractionation tower and moves directly to customers by pipeline.
Commissioning of the Khanom plant will add 230 MMcfd to PTT's process capacity.
The four plants will provide combined production capacity of 1 tcfd of methane, 1,450 tons/day of ethane, 1,414 tons/day of propane, 2,670 tons/day of LPG, and 5,700 b/d of NGL.
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