Syntroleum Corporation plans to commercialise a small barge-mounted GTL plant. The GTL Barge is designed to develop offshore natural gas assets in the 1-3 TCF range where there is currently no infrastructure to produce and transport the stranded reserves since the fields are not large enough to support an LNG facility. The barge solution builds on Syntroleum’s air-blown gas-to-liquids conversion process. The mobile plant enables exploitation of “stranded” gas fields, i.e. ones which are too far from markets to be economic using pipelines and other transportation methods. The GTL Barge will focus on offshore gas reserves in shallow water or onshore gas reserves that are near the coastline. Of the estimated 5500 TCF of gas reserves world-wide, nearly one-half is stranded, with over 50% of those reserves being offshore.
Syntroleum is seeking industry participants to build and operate the first GTL barge. Holmes believes the GTL barge opportunity “will stimulate interest among E&P companies, oil service companies or other financially driven participants” and is already in discussions with several candidates as it plans to build a fleet of barges.
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