Houston-based Syntroleum Corp. has signed a joint development agreement with Sovereign Oil and Gas Co., based in Tulsa, to acquire and develop stranded natural gas fields worldwide using Syntroleum’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) synthetic fuels technology.

The companies plan to identify and license proven gas fields in remote locations for use as feedstock to supply the GTL Bard, designed by Syntroleum. The GTL Barge will produce environmentally friendly synthetic fuels from natural gas to replace high-sulfur diesel and other conventional fuel.

In early February, Syntroleum announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Dragados Industrial SA, the Spanish engineering contractor, and TI Capital, the finance arm of a Middle East-based crude oil transportation and marketing company, to finance, build, own and operate GTL barge plants.

“This agreement with Sovereign completes our GTL Barge project development team,” said COO Jack Holmes. “With Syntroleum’s GTL technology, Dragados’ and TI Capital’s engineering, construction, and finance capabilities, and Sovereign’s upstream expertise, we have linked the three necessary components for developing the first GTL Barge project.”

Syntroleum’s GTL Barge consists of a nominal 19,000 bbl/d total liquids production plant mounted on an inland barge. In calm water conditions, the barge plant uses Syntroleum’s proprietary air-based GTL technology, the Syntroleum Process, to convert natural gas into synthetic diesel and other clean fuels. The GTL Barge is designed to develop already discovered offshore and near-shore natural gas assets where there is currently no infrastructure to economically produce and transport the gas.

Under their plan, several GTL Barges will produce and convert gas to liquids in offshore and near-shore regions of the world, making formerly stranded gas fields economic. The GTL Barge is capable of producing about 130 million bbl of synthetic fuel from a 1.2 Tcf field. The primary product is a high-quality, environmentally friendly synthetic diesel fuel that is biodegradable, non-toxic and as clear as water.

Sovereign President Joseph M. Bruso noted that GTL only “came of age” in 2003, but “there are now at least four large commercial GTL plants under construction or in the planning stages, with 450,000 bbl/d of synthetic fuels capacity. Syntroleum has already identified 40 stranded gas fields that would be a good fit for their unique GTL Barge plants, with potential reserves equivalent to 8 billion bbl of synthetic diesel and clean fuels.”

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