First Oryx shipment to start this month
Published: Wednesday, 4 April, 2007, 08:51 AM Doha Time
gulf-times.com
LONDON: Oryx GTL, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and South Africa’s Sasol, will this month begin its first product shipment from Qatar’s first gas-to-liquids plant, a month later than planned, a spokesman said.
The $950,000mn Oryx venture in Ras Laffan Industrial City had previously planned to send its first fuel cargo by the end of the first quarter.
“The first shipment is ready; it’s just a question of doing the administration and logistics for an April sailing,” said Malcolm Wells, a London-based spokesman for SasolChevron, which is handling product marketing.
Oryx is designed to produce as much as 34,000 barrels a day of synthetic diesel, naphtha and other products, using natural gas as its feedstock. The venture is owned 51% by state-run Qatar Petroleum and 49% by Sasol.
Oryx was officially inaugurated in June. Because of start-up difficulties, it didn’t produce its first product until January.
“It’s a start-up plant, so it’s a bit like hitting a moving target,” Wells said, referring to the first shipment date.
The International Oil Daily had earlier reported that Oryx was scheduled to send 30,000 tons of fuel that contain virtually no sulphur by the end of the first quarter, but that constraints in shipping and co-ordinating berth space at the port of Ras Laffan led to delays.
Synthetic diesel from Oryx will be sent to Europe and the naphtha will go to Japan and Asia, the daily said.
Royal Dutch Shell started construction of a larger GTL plant in Qatar in, two days after ExxonMobil Corp scrapped plans for a similar facility because of high costs and the prioritisation of Qatari gas for domestic needs. - Bloomberg |
