Sasol Says Oryx GTL Output Lower Than Planned, Ramp-Up Delayed Until Mid-2008
Sasol said on 22 May that its Oryx GTL project was operating at rates lower than originally planned and that the ramp-up of production would be delayed until mid-2008 while a solution was implemented to prevent a higher-than-expected amount of fine material contaminants being produced early in the three-phase gas-to-liquids process. “The biggest challenge preventing ramp-up to the planned production rate is a higher than the design level of fine material that is produced in the process and which then has to be handled downstream of the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) units,” Sasol said, adding that the material was constraining the overall throughput of the downstream units. The company said plans were in place to resolve this problem over the coming months: “The installation of additional downstream equipment as a back-up solution to increase throughput has already been initiated and this will be available for implementation towards the middle of 2008.”
Sasol (49%) said the project had now been operating for three months, and during the initial start-up period, all systems, process units, including the three main technologies, had been successfully tested. It acknowledged that commissioning problems had played a role in delays, but added that problems with the steam super heater first identified in 2006 had been resolved (MEES, 18 September 2006). Sasol said it was confident it would overcome the technical challenges but until the production of fine material was reduced, the Oryx joint venture would only generate a marginal cash contribution to Sasol. The company said it would provide another update on Oryx no later than the company’s year-end results presentation in September.
The Oryx project is planned to use 330mn cfd of lean gas from the North Field to produce 34,000 b/d of liquids, comprising 24,000 b/d of diesel, 9,000 b/d of naphtha and 1,000 b/d of LPG. Construction work began in 2003, with the engineering, procurement and construction carried out by France’s Technip (MEES, 3 February 2003). Delays to the start-up and achieving full capacity production prompted QP (51%) to sell gas allocated to the project to Dubai via the Dolphin pipeline (MEES, 12 March).
