Doha, December 1, 2002 - Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Sasol Synfuels International (Pty) Ltd. (SSI) have jointly appointed 15 banks as lead arrangers in the USD 700 million non-recourse debt financing of their gas-to-liquid (GTL) project at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.
“This project is being implemented in compliance with the directives of His Highness the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani who set the strategy for the optimum utilization of Qatar’s enormous gas reserves estimated at 900 trillion cubic feet. This Gas-To-Liquids project with Sasol is a pioneering step that will take the natural gas industry into new horizons and will be the first step towards making Qatar the world’s capital of the GTL industry,” H.E. Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Minister of Energy and Industry, Chairman of Qatar Petroleum said on this occasion.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is acting as financial adviser and Linklaters as international legal counsel. Qatar Petroleum owns 51% and Sasol Synfuels International 49% of the joint venture.
“We and our partner – Qatar Petroleum - are very pleased with the achievement of this key financing milestone and welcome all the participating banks to this exciting project,” said Mr. Pieter Cox, Chief Executive of Sasol Limited.
Commercial production is scheduled to commence by the end of 2005 at an initial capacity of approximately 33,000 barrels per day, comprising approximately 24,000 barrels of GTL diesel, 8,000 barrels of GTL naphtha and 1,000 barrels of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The front-end engineering and design of the project has been completed and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids are now being evaluated. The Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate Process, developed and operated by Sasol in South Africa on a commercial scale since the early 1990s to convert natural gas to high-quality, environmentally friendly GTL diesel, GTL naphtha and LPG, will be used on the project.
-Ends-
© Press Release 2003
