Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

STATUS OF NATURAL GAS PROJECTS (Underline denotes changes since June 1994)
COMMERCIAL PROJECTS (Continued)
Gas and condensate arrive onshore in separate pipelines. In the Natural Gas Liquid Recovery plant any hydrocarbons heavier
than propane are removed from the gas stream yielding lean natural gas. The lean gas is fed to a two-stage methane reforming
plant. The first stage consists of a tubular reforming plant which is followed by a secondary oxygen blown reforming reactor
plant. The capacity of the three-train reforming plant would be sufficient for the production of 7,000 tons per of methanol.
day
Using an iron-based catalyst, the synthesis gas from the natural gas reforming plant is catalytically converted to predominantly
light olefinic hydrocarbons. The tailgas from Synthol is sent to the Tailgas Treatment plant where products (propylene,
butylene and C + condensate) are cryogenically removed before the gas is recycled back to a natural gas plant.
reforming
Hydrocarbons from Synthol are refined by conventional methods to produce the final fuels.
Final Project Cost: Onshore and offshore $3.15 billion
Commissioning Costs $0.47 billion
Synthesis Complex $0.60 billion
$0.45 billion
Refinery
Offsites and Utilities $0.86 billion
NEW ZEALAND SYNFUELS PLANT - Methanex New Zealand Limited (G-30)
The New Zealand Synthetic Fuels Corporation Limited (Synfuel) Motunui plant was the first in the world to convert natural
gas to gasoline using Mobil's methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process. Construction began in early 1982 and the first gallon of
gasoline was produced in October 1985. In the first 8 months of commercial production the plant produced 448,000 tonnes of
gasoline or about 35 percent of New Zealand's total demand for that period.
During the first two years of operation, the Synfuel plant suffered several shutdowns in the methanol units thus causing
production shortfalls despite reaching the one million tons of gasoline mark in 1988. A successful maintenance turnaround and
several improvements to the MTG waste water plant have improved efficiency considerably. In 1990 the plant produced about
12,000 barrels of gasoline per day. This is about 34 percent of New Zealand's gasoline needs.
The plant is located on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island in Taranaki. It is supplied by the offshore Maui and
Kapuni gas fields. The synthetic gasoline produced at the plant is blended at the Marsden Point refinery in Whangarei. The
plant is a tolling operation, processing natural gas owned by the government into gasoline for a fee. Synfuels, thus does not
own the refined product.
Synfuel was owned 75 percent by the New Zealand government and 25 percent by Mobil Oil of New Zealand Ltd. However,
the Petroleum Corporation of New Zealand (Petrocorp) entered an agreement with the New Zealand government to assume
its 75 percent interest in the corporation. The New Zealand government had been carrying a debt of approximately
$700 million on the plant up to that point. Petrocorp is owned by Fletcher Challenge, Ltd.
Since the change in ownership, a pipeline has been built between the Synfuel plant and the Petralgas methanol plant in the
Waitara Valley. This addition means that, when the price of distilled methanol is high, a percentage of Synfuel crude methanol
can be sent via the pipeline to Petralgas for distillation. When the price of gasoline is high, Petralgas methanol can be sent via
the pipeline to Synfuel and be converted into gasoline.
The synfuel plant produced a record 562,000 tonnes of gasoline in the first 6 months of 1991. A percentage of crude methanol
was pipelined to Fletcher's Petralgas plant to produce 186,000 tonnes of chemical grade methanol.
The plant was designed to produce 4,400 tonnes of methanol per day. Due to plant modifications, Synfuel is capable of produc
ing 5,000 tonnes of crude methanol per day. Equally, the plant was designed to produce 570,000 tonnes of gasoline per year.
Synfuel can produce over 630,000 tonnes of gasoline, or 34 percent of New Zealand's gasoline needs.
In February 1993, Methanex Corporation of Canada said it would buy the methanol assets from Fletcher Challenge Ltd., in a
transaction with an indicated value of US$730 million.
Fletcher Challenge would receive $250 million in cash and about 74 million common shares of Methanex in the proposed deal.
The transaction would make Methanex the world's largest producer and marketer of methanol, and would make Fletcher Chal
lenge the largest shareholder in the petrochemicals concern.
Following completion of the asset purchase and a share issue, Fletcher Challenge would hold about 43 percent of Methanex's
shares. The stake held by current leading shareholder Metallgescllschaft would fall to about 10 percent from its current
32 percent.
Fletcher Challenge, which owns the Cape Horn methanol plant in Chile, is the world's largest methanol producer, just ahead of
Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation.
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SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995