• Most Popular
  • Most Shared
Michael Lewis Reuters/Handout

Inside the Doomsday Machine

Got a question for Michael Lewis? The Liar's Poker author will be joining us on March 16 to talk about his new book on the financial meltdown, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.  Live Coverage 

BP to close test gas-to-liquids plant in Alaska

Wed Sep 2, 2009 2:09pm EDT

Stocks

   

By Yereth Rosen

Bonds  |  Global Markets

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept 2 (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) said it will close a facility in Alaska that has been used for seven years to test technology that converts natural gas into liquid fuel.

BP Exploration Alaska Inc, the company's Alaska unit, said Tuesday its facility at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage has fulfilled its mission, successfully demonstrating that diesel fuel and aviation fuel can be reliably produced from natural gas.

"The goal was research," said BP spokesman Steve Rinehart. "This was not a production-sized plant. But the processes were scaled up sufficiently to make sure that it would work."

The plant used about Cook Inlet natural gas, about 3 million cubic feet a day, Rinehart said. The plant produced about 300 barrels of fuel daily, which it sold to Tesoro, operator of a nearby refinery, he said.

The project was a success, BP Alaska President John Minge said in a news release.

"The technologies developed and improved there will eventually play a role in meeting the world's growing demand for cleaner fuels," Minge said.

The Nikiski plant will close at the end of 2009, BP said. Its approximately 15 affected employees will be offered jobs elsewhere in the company.

BP said its gas-to-liquids work will continue in Europe, where it and partner Davy Process Technology, a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey Plc (JMAT.L), are working on engineering design for full-scale units.



More from Reuters

Photo

Lehman insolvent weeks before bankruptcy: examiner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc used accounting gimmicks and had been insolvent for weeks before it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, a court-appointed examiner said, but he did not find extensive wrongdoing.

People stand next to windows above an exterior sign at the Lehman Brothers headquarters in New York in this September 16, 2008 file photo. September 14, 2009 marks the one year anniversary of the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers. Picture taken September 16, 2008. REUTERS/Chip East/Files

Lehman used "gimmicks"

A 2,200-page report on Lehman Brothers' collapse found a series of shadowy transactions designed to make its balance sheet look stronger.  Full Article 

Actors Sam Worthington (L) as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri are shown in a scene from the computer animated film from director James Cameron "Avatar" in this undated publicity handout. REUTERS/WETA/Twentieth Century Fox/Handout

Avatar vs. mining "villains"

All publicity is good publicity -- but try telling that to mining executives who were painted as the bad guys in the Oscar-winning blockbuster.  Full Article