Fines confound Sasol mega plant

Fines confound Sasol mega-plant

05-23-2007

The South African Company, Sasol on Tuesday announced that full commissioning of its $950m Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) joint venture (JV) project in Qatar has been delayed until possibly at least mid-2008. The project, the largest GTL plant in the world, has been hit by a succession of teething problems, of which production of fines material is the latest.

Sasol states that a number of possible causes for the fines production have been identified and plans are in place to "eliminate or remediate" these over the coming months. The installation of additional downstream equipment as a back-up solution to increase throughput has already been initiated, states Sasol, and this will be available for implementation towards the middle of 2008.

Until the fines problem is overcome, Sasol says that Oryx "will only generate a marginal cash contribution".

Oryx was ceremonially opened on June 7 last year, in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The Oryx JV, in which Qatar Petroleum owns 51% and Sasol 49%, was then expected to build up to full production in 12 months or so.

The plant experienced start-up operational challenges, most limited to individual pieces of equipment. The failure of the steam super heater in the utility section, reported on during the second half of 2006, had been the most significant to date. The problem has since been successfully resolved, with the fines challenge apparently waiting to the end.

Oryx utilises Fischer-Tropsch technology at its core, a process all but perfected over 50 years by Sasol at Secunda, south west of Johannesburg, where coal is used to produce liquid fuels. In Qatar, the first process, where coal is gasified, is skipped as gas is the primary feedstock, from the country's massive offshore gas fields.

At full production Oryx is set to produce around 34 000 barrels a day of natural fuels, mainly an ultra-pure diesel, as clear as water. The world has been watching progress at Oryx as it moves to full production, with Oryx seen as a global prototype of big-scale GTL in action. There are plans to expand the initial nameplate capacity of the Oryx plant to as much as 100 000 barrels of liquids a day, and yet further plans to construct an integrated GTL plant with stand alone capacity of 130 000 barrels of liquids a day.

Pat Davies, Sasol CEO, first started visiting Qatar in 1995 but took years to win over the confidence of the emirate. The construction of Oryx commenced in December 2003. At full production, Oryx will use around 350m standard cubic feet a day of gas from Qatar's North gas field, which is generally regarded as the largest single non-associated gas reserve in the world. Its total proven reserves are stated at 900trn standard cubic feet.