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Sasol's GTL Plant in Qatar to Produce Full Capacity in '08

11-02-2007

South African fuels company Sasol will reach full capacity at its Qatar super-clean fuels plant in 2008 after over a year of delays due to technical problems, a company executive said.

"We will reach full capacity in calendar year 2008," said Chris Turner, manager of Sasol's Oryx gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar.

He declined to give details of current output or shipments to date. A company source said the plant had shipped three cargoes of diesel and a cargo of naphtha, but declined to say how many barrels were shipped on each cargo.

The plant had been scheduled to start selling fuel last year but problems with a super heater caused delays. Sasol said the cost of resolving problems with the plant would be $50 million.Oryx is the world's first commercial-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant. The plant will produce 34,000 barrels per day of liquid fuels from natural gas.It is operated in partnership with Qatar Petroleum, while oil major Chevron will do most of the marketing in Europe and North America under the joint Sasol Chevron brand.

Qatar 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.

Royal Dutch Shell is developing what will be the world's biggest GTL project, also in Qatar, which is expected to start around the end of the decade.