By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 24 -- Compressed Energy Technology (CETech) is developing a new concept for transporting compressed natural gas (CNG) from offshore fields to terminals. Gas would be moved on vessels equipped with large horizontal tubes carrying the gas under high pressure, with the largest ships capable of loading as much as 20,000 tonnes of CNG (OGJ Online, May 4, 2004).
The newly created CETech, owned equally by Statoil ASA, Canadian-owned Teekay Shipping Corp., and Norway's Leif Höegh & Co, will market the technology and has already sought several patents. The project has been under study with Det Norske Veritas since 2002.
Project manager Per Henning Hanssen, who chairs CETech, said the most relevant application in the short term would be from traditional gas field developments that are uneconomic because of size and geographical location.
Compression, which loses less energy than liquefaction, could be effective for traveling 300-2,000 nautical miles from fields with production volumes of 500,000 to 3 billion standard cu m/year, the group said.
