Japan's Sumitomo Corporation said Monday that it has signed a commercial contract with UK-based CompactGTL (CGTL), Japan-based Sumitomo Precision Products and Japan-based Kawasaki Heavy Industries to supply reactor blocks which are able to convert associated gas into synthetic crude oil.

 

Until recently, oil development in remote or deep water locations has been plagued by natural gas produced as waste, as no adequate technology has been developed for its effective use or appropriate disposal. The most conventional way of disposing of the gas, simply burning it off, is becoming increasingly unacceptable from economical, political and environmental standpoints, and there has been a need to develop an effective method for transforming this troublesome "associated gas" into a usable resource.

 

The CompactGTL technology has been developed to convert this associated gas into synthetic crude oil using catalytic mini-channel reactors.

 

"We are unable to place a value on this contract as the technology is a pioneer one. The commercial value of the project cannot be determined at present," a Sumitomo Corporation spokesperson told Rigzone.

 

A demonstration plant for the technology was commissioned at Petrobras' Aracaju site in Brazil in December 2010 as a test project. The project was deemed as a success and ready for commercial production in January 2012. CGTL was the supplier of the reactor blocks for the test project. Sumitomo Corporation was contracted by CGTL to design and manufacture the reactor blocks.

 

"Sumitomo Corporation is seeking to win orders and expand sales by enabling oilfield development in regions such as Russia, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America," added the spokesperson.