Japan firms develop commercial GTL technology

TOKYO Jan 27 (Reuters) - A Japanese consortium of oil and engineering firms said on Friday it has succeeded in developing a commercially viable gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology, but has no plans yet to build a commercial plant.

GTL technology, which processes natural gas containing carbon dioxide gas into naphtha, kerosene and gas oil, can be used to exploit unexplored fields with confirmed gas reserves, creating clean fuel with no sulphur or aromatic content.

An experiment using a 500 barrels per day plant set up to demonstrate the technology ended roughly three years of work, clocking up 10,000 hours of operations, the group, called Nippon GTL Technology Research Association, said in a statement.

The group consists of oil developers Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) and Inpex, refiners JX Nippon Oil & Energy and Cosmo Oil, and engineering firms Chiyoda Corp and Nippon Steel Engineering Co.

In 2009 the group had said it aimed to build a commercial plant as early as the 2011/12 financial year, ending on March 31, in cooperation with state-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC). (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)