Fuel from Qatar/Sasol GTL plant expected end-March
Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:28 AM GMT
za.today.reuters.com
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The first shipment from the Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar, co-owned by South Africa's Sasol, the world's biggest producer of motor oil from coal, will hit the market by end-March this year.
A statement from Sasol on Monday quoted the Oryx plant's General Manager, Chris Turner as saying the plant was expected to start output in the last week of March as Sasol had previously stated, but months behind its original schedule.
"Overall the start-up is progressing smoothly. Although, as we expected it has not been without its challenges... Barring the unexpected, we expect to achieve the first quarter target we set ourselves," Turner said on Monday in Doha, Qatar.
Oryx -- the world's largest commercial GTL plant, with a capacity for 34,000 barrels per day -- was officially opened in June last year but technical problems delayed production.
"As is typical of plants of this scale anywhere in the world, we have followed a detailed, sequential start-up process. There is no magic switch that gets flicked to start 34,000 barrels of product per day flowing," Turner said.
"The process takes time and you can't cut corners."
He said there was no previous example of such a complex plant, but that Oryx was finally on track to pioneer the sector.
Oryx GTL is a joint venture between Sasol Chevron and state-run Qatar Petroleum (QP). Sasol Chevron has a 49 percent stake in the project while Qatar Petroleum holds 51 percent.
Oil major Chevron will do most of the marketing of the ultra clean "green diesel" in Europe and North America under the joint Sasol Chevron brand. Once online, the nearly $1 billion project will produce mostly GTL fuel and GTL naphtha.
Qatar, home to the world's third largest reserves of natural gas after Russia and Iran, wants to develop GTL as a way to get its vast gas reserves to market, alongside sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas. Other oil majors are also seeking to launch similar plants in the future. |
