PTT Public Co. Ltd. (PTT), through its contractor, has let a contract to Lummus Technology LLC to deliver technologies and other services for units to be included as part of a grassroots natural gas processing plant to be built at the operator’s existing complex in Map Ta Phut, Rayong Province, Thailand.
As part of the contract awarded by project contractor CCC-JV—a joint venture of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co. Ltd. (CPP), China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau Co. Ltd. (CPPB), and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp. (CPECC)—Lummus will license its proprietary NGL-MAX and NGL fractionation technologies, as well as provide basic engineering and related services, for the NGL recovery and fractionation units of PTT’s proposed seventh gas separation (GSP-7) plant, the service provider said on Jan. 27.
The NGL-MAX and NGL fractionation technologies will enable the planned GSP-7 plant to recover cold energy from its 460-MMcfd LNG feedstock to enable increased energy efficiency and reduced carbon intensity in production of high-purity ethane, propane, and various LPG and natural gas condensates, according to Lummus.
The technology licensing contract to Lummus follows PTT’s announcement on Sept. 23, 2021, of its $282-million contract award to the CCC-JV consortium of CPP, CPPB, and CPECC to serve as main engineering procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor on the GSP-7 project.
Scheduled for a construction period of 27 months from the time of the EPC contract award and to be built on about 180,000 sq m within PTT’s Map Ta Phut complex, GSP-7 will receive its feed gas—all of which is produced from the Gulf of Thailand—directly from the terminal of its existing Rayong gas separation plant operations to recover ethane and fractionate heavier hydrocarbons into propane, LPG, NGLs, and condensates for use as petrochemical feedstocks and fuel (e.g., cooking gas), according to official project documents from PTT.
Officially approved in December 2020 at a budget of 13.7 billion baht, GSP-7 will replace current production capacity of PTT’s first GSP at Map Ta Phut—GSP-1, for which Lummus also served as technology licensor—which has been operating for more than 30 years, PTT said.
Scheduled for startup in 2023, GSP-7 will be followed by commissioning in 2025 of the operator’s proposed GSP-8, according to the operator’s latest presentation to investors.
While complete details of GSP-8 have yet to be disclosed, the project will include another LNG extraction unit for ethane and LPG, as well as the addition of ethane storage and receiving installations to enhance ethane-import capacity, PPT said in a mid-December 2021 filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Current GSP capacity
PTT current operates six GSPs in Thailand at two locations. With an overall nameplate processing capacity of 2.66 bcfd, the plants currently operate at a combined processing capacity of 2.87 bcfd due to efficiency improvements (see accompanying table).
