By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, June 15 -- Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Corp. Friday announced plans to conduct a technical feasibility study for a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar.
The proposed plant would convert North field gas into liquid products.
A letter of intent was signed by Qatar Petroleum Chairman and Minister of Energy and Industry Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah and by Harry Longwell, ExxonMobil director and senior vice-president.
The study will provide Qatar Petroleum with information on the use of ExxonMobil's proprietary AGC-21 technology in a GTL plant. The study will also identify and determine potential synergy opportunities with other projects and infrastructure in Qatar.
The proposed GTL plant would convert North field gas into low sulfur diesel fuel, naphtha, and lubricant basestocks for export to world markets.
ExxonMobil has had a presence in Qatar since 1935. It has a 10% interest in the Qatargas LNG project and 25% interest in the RasGas LNG project plant.
In April, RasGas II and a joint venture signed an engineering, procurement, and construction contract to build an LNG train and related onshore facilities at the RasGas plant (OGJ Online, Apr. 2, 2001).
In addition to LNG projects, ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum last year signed a development and production sharing agreement to develop gas in Qatar's North Field via the Enhanced Gas Utilization (EGU) project (OGJ Online, May 3, 2000).
Under the EGU scheme, additional North field gas reserves will be developed for pipeline sales to domestic projects and for regional gas exports.