GAS-TO-LIQUID (GTL) AS AN OPTION TO RELATIVE ZERO GAS FLARING IN THE NIGER DELTA

Nigeria is associated with a total gas reserve that is well over 187Tscf, which in 2014 had produced over 2,524,268,444Mscf and flared about 300MMMscf. Over the years the average of total gas flared from the current to the previous year has reduced by 71%. In order to minimize gas flaring; this work proposes to design a gas to liquid (GTL) plant of capacity of 64952bpd and 21434113bpa to take a feed gas of 1000MMscfpd and more than 300billionscfa. The essence of the design capacity is to meet up relatively zero gas flaring and to contribute to fuel supply in the country. Distributing the GTL products across the country, the tanker system from cost-to-benefit analysis shows the best option, followed by the pipeline system, where the GTL products are commingled or batched. A pressure drop model was developed to ascertain which modes of transportation would consume less energy and less cost of pump along the pipelines. Since the higher the pressure drop in the pipeline, the higher the energy (the brake horsepower) needed to push the fluid. The commingled mode was selected.