Qatar Petroleum and Sasol Synfuels International had no hesitation in deciding to locate their new facility in the Ras Laffan Industrial City development in north-east Qatar on the Arabian Gulf, Oryx-Sasol manager GTL international projects Kobus Swanepoel tells Engineering News from Rome.

Ras Laffan, located some 100 km north of the capital of Doha, is a well-equipped modern port with extensive petroleum and related production plant and infrastructure. Swanepoel has been based at Technip’s offices in Rome for the last 12 months to spearhead the 25-member project management team (PMT) consisting of representaton from Qatar Petroleum (QP), Sasol and Foster Wheeler Energy Limited. Sasol is providing the single-point licence for the project with its own dedicated team, which is separate and independent of the PMT. All intellectual property and know-how is secured in the Sasol-supplied single-point licence agreements. Oryx GTL is currently the largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) project under construction in the world and proves that South African companies can hold their own on the world stage, says Swanepoel.

The Oryx GTL project, a joint venture between Sasol and QP, is a billion-dollar investment. Setting the pace as the first-of-a-kind commercial-scale project in the world, the initial 34 000 barrels-a-day (bbl/d) plant is the first step in the vision of Qatar to become the GTL capital of the world.

Qatar’s North Gas field, which has recoverable reserves amounting to 3 769 trillion cubic feet (tcf), and total gas in place exceeding 900 tcf is believed to be the largest single nonassociated gas reservoir in the world and a significant factor in Qatar’s economic development.

Three operators, North Field Alpha, QatarGas and RasGas are currently tapping into the North Field. During 2000, production from the QP-operated North Field Alpha was some 10 million barrels of condensate and 240 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of gas. QatarGas 2000 production amounted to some 19 million barrels of condensate and 435 bscf of gas and RasGas 2000 production amounted to some 9 million barrels of condensate and 240 bscf of gas.

Oryx GTL will use 330-million cubic feet per day of lean natural gas from Ras Laffan’s North Field, which holds an estimated 900 tcf of proven reserves. The Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD) process will convert the natural gas to synthesis gas which, in turn, will be converted into waxy synthetic crude before being upgraded to premium fuels and products through hydroprocessing technology. The facility will produce 24 000 bbl/day of GTL diesel, 9 000 bbl/day of naphtha and 1 000 bbl/day of liquefied petroleum gas, the markets offering the most potential for these products being Singapore, Japan and Europe.

The Sasol SPD Technology has a significant advantage in being able to monetise gas reserves into high-quality liquid fuels and, most notably, superior quality diesel. The resulting product is environment-friendly, which is an underlying factor in the serious demand for the process. Expansion studies are under way to increase plant capacity to 100 000 barrels a day, with Foster Wheeler Energy Limited preparing the front-end engineering and design (Feed) package for the project. Swanepoel reports few changes to date, which confirms the thoroughness of the completed technology packages and front-end engineering and design. The lump-sum turnkey contract awarded to Technip includes responsibility for the start-up and initial operation of the plant up to successful completion of the plant performance tests. Progress for engineering has reached 69% completion, procurement progress is at 32% with all itemised equipment on order, and construction progress is at 8%, all confirming the progress made in the 12 months since contract award.

The Oryx GTL site covers 72 ha, the construction site, at peak, employing up to 5 000 construction personnel. There are 65 000 m3 of concrete, 5 000 t of structural steel, 25 000 t of piping, 300 km of electrical power cable, 200 km of electrical control cable, 290 km of instrument cable and 570 major plant items, the largest weighing 2 200 t. The equipment has been sourced primarily from Asia and Europe, Japan, Korea, India, the Middle East, the United States and South Africa.

Site preparation to date involved more than a million cubic metres of earthworks, heavy concrete foundation works and building works, and major pre-cast piperacks are averaging 1 500 m3 of concrete pouring a week. Structural steelwork is under prefabrication, with imminent deliveries of more than 5 000 t expected to site. Some of the first major pieces of mechanical equipment have been tested and are being released for delivery to site in June 2004. Piping bulk material is being received on site, with start of pipe prefabrication imminent. At the project peak, more than 200 qualified piping fabricators will be employed to perform an estimated 680 000 diameter inches of pipe fabrication. Oryx project manager Arnold Cilliers and Oryx engineering manager Dr Kobus Duvenhage, both have Secunda roots, Cilliers’ project management experience gained from converting the old Fischer-Tropsch reactor slurry phase reactor at Secunda and Duvenhage has been involved in the development of GTL Technology since 1997, participating in the development of prefeasibility, feasibility and Feed packages for different world sites. As of 2001, Duvenhage formed part of the single-point licensor team responsible for the engineering design package for Oryx GTL.