Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

NATURAL GAS
Prospects for Shell MDS Technology
The economics of the $850 million Bintulu project
could not be based on the production of middle
distillates alone. Even with significant premiums
resulting from the high quality of those materials,
production at the small 12,500-barrel per day
plant carries too much capital charge to be
profitable. For that reason, the scope of the
project was extended to include the production
of a number of specialty hydrocarbons, often at
production capacities that are large compared to
regional or world market demand.
This production of specialty products cannot be
repeated without flooding the markets for these
materials. Future commercial applications will
have to focus entirely on production of middle dis
tillates. The key to economic viability will be
larger and more capital-efficient manufacturing
facilities. In combination with new technological
developments, the specific capital cost for a
50,000 barrel per day complex is projected to be
reduced by some 40 percent to US$30,000 per
daily barrel of product. At that level, commercial
applications can become feasible at crude oil
prices of US$20 per barrel.
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AMERICAN METHANOL BUILDING NEW
METHANOL PLANT IN WYOMING
American Methanol Ltd. has requested bids for
constructing
a new $30 million methanol plant
located about 15 miles west of Green River,
Wyoming. Construction should begin early this
year with production beginning in early 1996.
The anticipated construction workforce will peak
at 200 to 300 next summer. The permanent
workforce should be between 25 and 30.
A spokesman for the company said the low price
of natural gas, access to a cheap supply of car
bon dioxide from Exxon's Shute Creek plant, and
5-3
a local market for methanol were major factors in
locating the plant near Green River.
####
TAIWANESE MAY INVEST IN MOSSGAS
COMPLEX
According
News, the South African Government is consider
to a report in European Chemical
ing Taiwanese proposals to invest $8 billion in
the Mossgas project into a
developing
petrochemical refinery.
The Taiwanese plans include a plant for olefins, a
plant for aromatics, downstream plastics, and
fiber and textile production. The products would
be competitive in world markets.
A joint South African/Taiwanese task force has
been set up to evaluate the proposals. It will be
assessing whether or not to site the project at
Richards Bay or Mossel Bay.
The difference between the Taiwanese plan and
previous proposals is the focus on downstream
activities which dramatically increase the capital
requirements.
Previously, the Industrial Development Corpora
tion and Sentrachem had been considering in
vesting in the future of Mossgas.
The IDC/Sentrachem venture was thinking of a
far smaller investment project, worth $1.1 billion.
The South African Government has been seeking
a solution to Mossgas ever since it discovered
that the gas supplies are not as extensive as
originally thought.
The Taiwanese plans are long-term and do not
solve the government's immediate problem
about whether or not to continue investing in
Mossgas and prolong the life of the operation un
til the year 2001 .
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995