By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 7 -- Oryx GTL Ltd. has inaugurated the $950 million Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar.
Oryx GTL is a joint venture of state-owned Qatar Petroleum Co., 51%, and Sasol Ltd. of Johannesburg, 49%.
The plant will convert 330 MMcfd of lean gas from Qatar's vast North gas field into 34,000 b/d of ultralow-sulfur diesel, 24,000 b/d of diesel, 9,000 b/d of naphtha, and 1,000 b/d of LPG.
The Oryx GTL plant is the first to convert gas to liquid fuel on a commercial scale, said the plant's designer, Foster Wheeler Ltd. of the UK. The plant uses the proprietary, low-temperature Sasol slurry phase distillate process based on Fischer-Tropsch technology (OGJ, Mar. 14, 2005, p. 18).
Two other GTL plants are planned to start up in Qatar, the Pearl GTL project in 2010 and a Qatar Petroleum-ExxonMobil Corp. project in 2011 (OGJ, April 24, 2006, p. 20).
