By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Mar. 13�The Qatar Petroleum Co. (QP) and Sasol Synfuels International Co. Tuesday agreed on a $30 million joint venture for front-end engineering and design for a gas-to-liquids (GTL) project.
They said the work would begin as soon as the necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained.
The $800 million GTL project would start in 2005 and will convert natural gas into 34,000 b/d of liquid fuels.
The announcement followed completion of the feasibility study for the venture, to be based at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar.
The project would be based on Sasol's slurry phase distillate technology and Qatar's huge North Field gas reserves. The companies said infrastructure and project integration benefits offered by the Ras Laffan site, as well as improvements made to Sasol's process since discussions began between Qatar Petroleum and Sasol in 1996, have added significant value to the project.
Qatar Petroleum (51%) and Sasol (49%) intend to seek project finance for a significant portion of the GTL project's capital requirements.
The GTL project will use 330 MMscfd from ExxonMobil Corp.'s Ras Laffan based Enhanced Gas Utilization project to produce 24,000 b/d of fuel, 9,000 b/d of naphtha, and 1,000 b/d of liquefied petroleum gas. The liquid fuels produced by the Qatar gas-to-liquids facility have virtually no sulphur, a high cetane number, and very low aromatic content and enable significant reductions in emissions such as particulates, nitrous and sulphur oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons.