OREANDA-NEWS. The Gazprom Management Committee took notice of the research being done by the Company to develop a gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology.

The GTL technology is a prioritized and promising area of Gazprom's innovation activities. By introducing its own developments in this sector the Company will advance in meeting its strategic objectives aimed at the diversification of marketable products and the enhancement of their added value.

The meeting noted that the ongoing research was committed to developing technologies requiring equipment that could be manufactured by domestic machine building companies.

The Management Committee tasked the Company's specialized structural units to report in 2014 on the results of developing domestic GTL technologies.
Background

The GTL production process is based on the chemical transformation of hydrocarbon gases (natural, associated and other gases) into liquid hydrocarbons, particularly into an environmentally friendly diesel fuel and synthetic crude oil.

The GTL production in Russia can rely on small-sized natural gas fields, fields at the declining production stage when gas injection into the gas transmission system becomes economically unviable, as well as on associated petroleum gases.

Currently, the annual volume of GTL production is some 18 million tons worldwide.

Industrial GTL technologies used abroad require large-size equipment (one unit may weigh up to 2,000 tons, have a diameter of 10 meters and a height of 60 meters). This makes the offshore facility construction considerably more expensive.

Package units constructed in the recent few years for processing small volumes of gas are currently in pilot or pilot commercial operation.