ارزيابي فني- اقتصادي احداث واحدهاي توليد فرآورده هاي GTL در كشور

Techno-Economic Assessment of GTL Plants in Iran

GTL technology used to convert natural gas into oil products facilitates natural gas transportation to remote areas, increases value added, meets environmental objectives, recovers oil well gases and converts them into high quality products. That is why countries with large gas reserves are encouraged to use and develop GTL. Accordingly, this paper has tried to present a brief description of GTL process and study the economic viability of establishing GTL plants under two scenarios: "with" and "without" development and operation of gas fields. According to the study results, establishment of GTL plants is economically viable, the value added of GTL products is higher than that of natural gas and export of GTL products is more profitable than sale of natural gas through pipelines or as LNG. Furthermore, considering the high environmental cost of production of high quality products in oil refineries, GTL products could fully compete with such products in terms of price. The paper concludes with a review of the common investment methods in the downstream gas industry, and presents guidelines for financing GTL projects and attracting technical knowhow. JEL classification: Q42, 013, 014, 022, 032, C65