Primus, Tauber Oil sign US methanol offtake deal

GTL technology and solutions company Primus Green Energy has signed an offtake agreement with Tauber Oil for its methanol plant at a manufacturing site in the Marcellus shale region, officials announced on Thursday. 

The plant is expected to produce 160 tpd of methanol beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Tauber Oil will offtake all methanol produced by the plant -- utilizing low-cost Marcellus gas feedstock -- to market, sell and distribute into the regional market. The Primus standardized modular system allows for local production, thus saving its customers in the region on both production and transportation costs. 

As a result, the systems are cost-competitive with the world-class methanol plants located on the US Gulf and in international markets, according to Primus officials. In addition, Interconn Resources, a subsidiary of Tauber Oil Co., will be responsible for the supply of natural gas for the Primus facility.

“With its uniquely attractive economics, Primus’ technology has the ability to produce methanol at a competitive price at regional scale in the Marcellus,” said Steven Elliott, vice president of petrochemicals at Tauber Oil. “As a result, the system will provide our customers with a high-quality product at an advantaged price, while -- at the same time -- reducing the carbon footprint associated with the production and transportation of both natural gas and methanol.”

With the expected addition of three trains, the plant’s capacity will be expanded to produce up to 640 tpd of methanol locally. The site location for the plant will be announced in the coming months.

 “Working with Tauber -- an established methanol distributor with an extensive client roster and deep market knowledge -- allows us to confidently deploy our system to arguably the largest shale play in the US,” said George Boyajian, chief commercial officer of Primus Green Energy. “Further, we’re proud to form a partnership that will facilitate the production of methanol for domestic customers, utilizing a low-cost domestic feedstock.”

Primus’ STG+ technology can use a range of natural gas feedstocks, including wellhead and pipeline gas, dry or wet associated gas, “stranded” ethane, excess syngas from underutilized reformers or mixed natural gas liquids. The systems’ stranded and associated gas applications offer an ideal solution to the lack of traditional natural gas pipeline infrastructure in remote locations, the company says, enabling the monetization of gas that would otherwise be stranded or flared. The low-cost, modular systems can be trucked in and assembled onsite for easy deployment.

The STG+ methanol and gasoline solutions are being developed in multiple projects across North America, Asia and the Middle East. By comparison with other GTL technologies, the process holds many key advantages, Primus says -- including record low capital and operating costs, high liquid product quality, zero wastewater, unmatched process simplicity and one of the best conversion yields on the market. 

These advantages result in STG+ technology being uniquely economical at all scales, starting at as small as 100,000 Nm3/day (5 million scf) of feed gas.