New solution for monetizing stranded gas

Offshore staff

ABUJA, Nigeria -- One of the biggest challenge for operators is finding a way to monetize gas. Bruce Hall, president of SeaOne Maritime Corp. introduced a new gas monetization concept at the Offshore West Africa Conference & Exhibition on March 22.

"LNG is the transportation of choice for huge reserves," Hall said. Problems arise, however, when the reserves numbers are small. Hall's answer to this delemma is CGL, compressed gas liquid.

"CGL isnot LNG," Hall said. "It is not CNG (compressed natural gas)." CGL is a way to produce and commercialize stranded gas.

Hall told conference attendees about the SeaOne concept of LNG LIte, which he explained as a marine gas transportation system that processes and loads full raw production gas for transportation on a CGL carrier.

The carrier concept, Hall said, is being classed as a containment vessel by the American Bureau of Shipping. His expectation is for a final ruling in 4Q 2009.

Hall explained the advantages of CGL. There is no need for a shore-based cryogenic liquefation plant or regasification. And CGL does not require separate production or raw gas conditioning, he said.

"CGL is efficient," Hall said. "For every btu (British thermal unit) used for fuel, you lose value of gas in the ground. With CGL, the loss is less than 1%."

With the economics of CGL, "Small gas reserves become viable for production," Hall said.

"This is not rocket science," Hall said. "It's just that we (as an industry) have become very complacent over the years with following exisiting technology."

3/22/2007