And it could add an extra 18% profit over the existing plan.
Altona commissioned a technical feasibility study of the CTM option and found it could be a goer.
The original CTL proposal was for a 45,000-barrels-per-day CTL facility developed in three separate 15,000bblpd/280 megawatt phases over 10 years.
The CTM study proposes that one 15,000bblpd train be replaced with a 6200-methanol-tonne-per-day CTM plant to be built in tandem with a 15,000bblpd CTL plant. This is instead of building the first two CTL plants in series.
Altona is going to present the CTM project to its Arckaringa JV partner CNOOC for further evaluation.
The CTM project is essentially based on converting Arckaringa coal to syngas via above-ground coal gasification.
The study confirmed:
- the same amount of gas needed to make 15,000bblpd of CTl could instead produce 62000tpd of methanol
- the available power was suitable to operate the CTM plant. The retained 15,000bblpd CTL plant produces 280MW hours of excess electricity with the CTM plant expected to use about 95% of that
- the investment costs for the CTL/CTM plant option were essentially the same as the two-train CTL plant
Furthermore, an in-house Altona study found the CTL/CTM plant option would potentially increase annual project revenue by about $US212 million ($A238m), or 18% when compared to a CTL-only plant.
Altona’s executive director for technology, Peter Gaiano, said CTM offered a real opportunity to further enhance the already favourable project economics at Arckaringa.
