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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gasification Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	6/29/2006 5:32:21 PM
From: upanddown	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

Hi Dennis Would it be reasonable to say that GTL can only work economically in some remote corner of the world where: 1. There are huge quantities of stranded gas with no local market. 2. The gas is made available to the GTL plant at a price far below NG prices in this country. It appears that ORYX will use approx 10K cf to make a barrel of very high quality diesel. That is approx $60 worth of gas feedstock at today's price. The diesel will sell at a premium in Europe but how much? Let's say $100 a barrel. That might be marginally profitable after all costs. The US and Europe really don't have the gas quantities needed and will likely conclude that their NG is more valuable as NG than diesel. CTL, on the other hand, seems to have much better economics that work right now. I have a lot of SSL but I like it better for its CTL process than their GTL projects. John

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	10/5/2006 9:16:26 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

Qatar GTL projects face delays Thursday, 5 October 2006 itp.net by Nicholas Wilson South African petrochemicals group Sasol said in September that its gas to liquids (GTL) project in Qatar was likely to be between nine months and a year behind schedule due to contractor problems. In addition, all of the company’s other major projects were either behind deadline or running over budget. The start of operations of the Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant has now been delayed to the fourth quarter of this year due to damage during early commissioning to a steam superheating plant. In September last year, Sasol said it expected the GTL plant to be onstream in the first quarter of 2006. Chief executive Pat Davies said he was disappointed in the delay, but it would not result in significant extra costs to the project. “It’s not a train smash,” he said. The delay resulted from damage to the steam plant and was not due to Sasol’s Fischer-Tropsch process technology, which the company uses to convert coal and gas into liquid fuels. General manager Lean Strauss said that Oryx’s operating costs were expected to soar between 50% to 60% due to the rise in commodity prices. Davies said other Sasol projects had also been delayed or hit by cost overruns, which was a global phenomenon. Spokesperson Johann van Rheede said: “The phenomena of commodity price increases, and engineering and construction skill shortages, is global and not limited to South Africa or Sasol.” Davies said that an energy company, which he declined to name, had cost overruns of between 30% and 110% on capital projects. He said the high oil price had caused an increase in investment in oil and related projects, which resulted in a skills shortage. Van Rheede said: “As a result, quality suffers, costs go up and schedules tend to move out.” Davies said the company’s projects were being hit by a shortage of engineering service capacity and capital projects were also under strain from increases in commodities prices, especially oil. The projects that had been hit by delays included Iran’s Arya Sasol Polymers and the synfuels catalytic cracker project, Project Turbo. Project Turbo was due to commission in September 2006 rather than the previously expected first quarter. Another Sasol venture, The Escravos GTL, in Nigeria has been hit by a cost overrun, but this was unlikely to affect project economics. Strauss said that the cost was likely to be 20% above previous estimates.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	12/2/2006 8:06:04 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

‘Oryx GTL start-up in 2007 first quarter’ Published: Saturday, 2 December, 2006, 10:24 AM Doha Time gulf-times.com By Pratap John SasolChevron Qatar country manager, Pat Butcher (centre) displays the “ultra-clean” GTL diesel as Turner (left) and Oryx GTL deputy general manager Khalid al-Hail look on DOHA: The first shipment from Oryx GTL at Ras Laffan is scheduled for first quarter of 2007. The initial market for the Oryx GTL supplies will be Western Europe, general manager Chris Turner told Gulf Times on Thursday. The plant at Ras Laffan, he said, is in the final stages of for the start-up. “Once we start up the plant we will build inventories for the shipment. It takes some time to build up the inventories. Once that’s done we will start shipment, scheduled for the first quarter of 2007,” Turner said. The $1bn Oryx GTL is a joint venture between QP (51%) and Sasol (49%). The plant inaugurated in June is the world’s first commercial GTL plant outside South Africa and is currently the world’s largest. Oryx GTL will have a production capacity of 34,000bpd. This will comprise about 24,000bpd of diesel (known as “green diesel” because of its ultra clean nature), 9,000 bpd of naphtha and 1,000 bpd of liquefied petroleum gas. Oryx GTL will be using about 330mn cu ft per day of lean gas from the North Field to produce the liquids. Asked why the first target market for Oryx GTL’s diesel is Western Europe, Turner said, “That’s a very dynamic market now.” However, the first target market for naphtha will be Asia. “We have already identified customers there,” he said. Turner said Oryx GTL would link up to SasolChevron to market its products. “We are very fortunate to have access to SasolChevron’s marketing services. They will use their expertise to market our products,” he said. Oryx GTL, the first of its kind, uses the proprietary, low temperature Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (Sasol SPD) process that is based on Fischer - Tropsch technology. HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani laid the foundation stone for the plant in December 2003. Construction commenced at the 72-hectare Ras Laffan site immediately thereafter. A QP release yesterday said Oryx GTL capacity would be stepped up to 100,000 bpd in association with SasolChevron, the London-based joint venture of Sasol and Chevron Corporation.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	1/10/2007 11:45:57 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Sasol's Qatar plant may be 15 months late January 10, 2007 busrep.co.za By Justin Brown Johannesburg - Sasol's $950 million (R7 billion) Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar continues to suffer from delays, with the plant set to miss its deadline for producing its first commercial fuel by as much as 15 months. Oryx is 51 percent owned by Qatar and 49 percent by Sasol. In September 2005, Sasol said the Oryx GTL plant would commission in the first quarter of 2006. In September, Sasol moved the date to the last quarter of 2006. Sasol chief executive Pat Davies has attributed the delays to contractor problems, especially damages to a steam superheating plant during early commissioning. Yesterday, London-based Sasol Chevron spokesperson Malcolm Wells said the Oryx GTL plant was set to come on stream in the first quarter of this year. Sasol Chevron is a 50:50 joint venture between Sasol and ChevronTexaco to market GTL fuel. At full production, the Oryx plant is expected to produce 34 000 barrels a day. In another development, Sasol has been hit by more delays in the sale of its olefins and surfactants division, which spans chemical businesses mainly in Europe and North America. Sasol first planned to sell the division by last September. It then extended the deadline to the end of last year. Sasol now expects to sell the olefins and surfactants business by the end of June, subject to regulatory and other approvals. Initially 45 entities had expressed an interest in the division, and by last September the field had been cut down to three. Sasol Olefins and Surfactants is the renamed German company, Condea, which Sasol bought in 2001 from RWE-Dea for e1.3 billion (R12 billion). Analysts expected Sasol to sell the division for between R6 billion and R7 billion. In September, Sasol wrote down the division by R2.8 billion after tax. Sasol first identified the olefins and surfactants division for sale in August 2005. "Sasol today confirmed that negotiations are continuing with potential buyers for this business," spokesperson Johann van Rheede said in a statement without giving reasons for the delay. "The company has reiterated that the sale of olefins and surfactants is subject to fair value being obtained and that until the business is sold, Sasol remains committed to the strategic and operational goals of olefins and surfactants and will provide the support necessary to uphold its effectiveness and success," Van Rheede added.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	1/22/2007 4:59:39 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

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.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	1/22/2007 9:11:34 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

ORYX GTL Plant Producing and on Target for First Shipment - Press Release prnewswire.com The ORYX GTL plant is now producing intermediate product and only the product work-up unit now remains to be tested.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (436)	1/30/2007 6:50:54 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

Sasol's Oryx plant up and running business.iafrica.com Tue, 30 Jan 2007 The Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar, which is a 51:49 joint venture between state-owned Qatar Petroleum and South African synthetic fuels group Sasol, has successfully completed the start-up of the final process unit and has produced final GTL product. Chris Turner, General Manager of Oryx GTL said on Monday: "Since construction of the plant was completed, we have been following a structured start-up plan. "That plan was fulfilled at the weekend when the first final product from Oryx GTL was produced. "Oryx works. We are producing GTL products and we are on target to have product ready for market by the end of the first quarter as previously announced." I-Net Bridge