  |
|
Qatari gas-to-liquids plant begins production
AFP
DOHA
Petroleumworld.com 01 30 06Qatar announced on Monday that production has begun in its first gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant and that fuel products will be ready for marketing from the end of March.
The one-billion-dollar project, a joint venture with South African company Sasol, was inaugurated last June by Qatari Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
"Since construction of the plant was completed, we have been following a structured start-up plan," said Chris Turner, general manager of the Oryx GTL project.
"That plan was fulfilled at the weekend when the first final product from Oryx GTL was produced," he said in a statement.
"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."The plant, which is 51-percent-owned by Qatar Petroleum and 49 percent by Sasol, is located at the Ras Laffan industrial city.
It will be fed from the country's massive North Field -- part-shared with Iran -- to produce 24,000 barrels per day (bpd) of diesel, 9,000 bpd of naphtha and 1,000 bpd of liquefied petroleum gas that will be sold mostly in Europe.
Work on the project started in December 2003.
Qatar is set to be the world's largest exporter of LNG by 2010, with an annual output of 30 million tonnes, and is pushing to take production to 45 million tonnes a year.
AFP 29 1933 GMT 01 07
Copyright© 1999 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels