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AIDEA commissioning GTL/CTL study
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority wants to make a plan for converting local natural gas and coal resources into liquids to sell worldwide.
The public corporation plans to spend between $250,000 and $400,000 commissioning the study to consider the business case for an Alaska gas-to-liquids or coal-to-liquids facility. The funding comes from a legislative appropriation made earlier this year.
The contractor will develop a plan for an operation capable of making jet fuel or diesel from the considerable gas and coal resources in Alaska. The plan will consider the entire supply chain for such a facility, looking at everything from the raw materials, to the operating cost of existing technologies, to potential locations for a facility, to synergies with other industries, to the potential markets for Alaska liquids. If the plan finds such an operation to be feasible, the contractor would also lay out next steps for the proposal.
Goal markets for gas A big hope for the facility is to create additional markets for Alaska natural gas, not only the stranded supplies on the North Slope but also the constrained supplies in Cook Inlet, where the desire to encourage exploration is hampered by the limited local market.
Those dreams have fueled similar projects in Alaska in the past. ExxonMobil studied a North Slope GTL plant in the 1980s and 1990s, and BP operated a pilot project in Nikiski from 2003 to 2009. Many independent entities have also promoted the technology for Alaska.
While the technology for turning gas or coal to liquid is somewhat established, the cost of the process has generally been prohibitive, especially with oil prices at historical highs.
AIDEA is taking proposals through Oct. 17 and plans to award the contract sometime around Oct. 30. The contract runs for 151 days, or until approximately March 31, 2014.
—Eric Lidji
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