31-01-03 State-run Qatar Petroleum (QP) and South African minerals and hydrocarbons group Sasol awarded French-based Technip-Coflexip the $ 675-mm engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for their joint venture natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant.
The facility, named Oryx GTL, is based at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, a tiny Gulf emirate whose North Field is the world's biggest natural gas field. A total of 9.9 mm cmpd (330 mm cfpd) of gas will be used to produce 34,000 barrels of fuel, LPG and naphtha, used as a feedstock for the chemical industry. The markets that offer the most potential for these products are Singapore, Japan and Europe, QP and Sasol said.

The contract with Technip-Coflexip includes responsibility for the start-up and initial operation of the plant up to the performance test phase, the companies said. The construction phase is expected to be completed within three years. The facility's Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) package was prepared by Foster Wheeler UK.
"We have worked hard in partnership with Sasol to lay the commercial foundations of a new industry, and I believe that GTL will be a vital component of the global fuel mix of the future," said QP chairman Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, also Qatar's energy minister.

Qatar Petroleum has a 51 % stake in the project. Sasol raised its stake to 49 % in the Middle East's first GTL project in May 2001 after taking up the 15 % stake surrendered by US oil company Phillips Petroleum.