Possible developement in Ashtabula and/or Columbiana

More recently, Houston-based Velocys announced it had acquired Pinto Energy (also Houston-based) for a very specific purpose.  Seems Velocys, with offices also in Columbus, is looking to get involved in Utica production and in an area some would find unlikely.  With both BP and Halcon Resources throwing in the towel (at least for now) in Northern Ohio, it was interesting to see them announce Ashtabula County as the site for their development plans.  Apparently they see it as the perfect location for a new high-tech but small-scale gas-to-liquids plants ultimately producing……you guessed it – jet fuel and diesel.

Interesting that they picked Ashtabula.  Did they do so expecting drilling activity to supply the raw product or so that they are nearer to the market for the end product?

http://shaleforum.com/profiles/blogs/jet-fuel-and-diesel-in-ohio?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Also a possible jet fuel plant in Columbiana instead of the coal-to-gas facility that was proposed a few years back.

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Permalink Reply by Philip Thackray on August 8, 2014 at 11:42am

Joe,

It will be the residential and industrial "Gas" that is flowing in the pipelines all around us.

Phil

Permalink Reply by deer spotter on August 8, 2014 at 12:19pm

In my opinion the Pinto Gas Plant will not be built in the near future. Hope I'M wrong but the plant was tied to BP. Can anyone post a gas analysis of  Ashtabula or Trumbull CO. to prove the BTUS.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on August 8, 2014 at 12:56pm

The btu content for natural gas (residential / industrial) purchased from any provider anywhere that I've been exposed to in the country is rounded off to 1000 btu / cubic foot of volume at service pressure.

Also the only liquid contained in that natural gas that was ever of concern was the water (moisture) content.

On that basis I assume that the natural gas contained in the carrier's residential / industrial piping / distribution systems was / is the 'dry' gas everyone discusses / describes on these pages.

Can that 'dry' natural gas produce diesel / LPG / naptha ?

Permalink Reply by deer spotter on August 8, 2014 at 2:45pm

J-O:  1000 BTUS is low for pipeline gas. I assume you can produce bi- products as you said from dry gas. However why would a company spend millions to build a plant in Ashtabula with very little production in that area? How many months out of the year does the port operate? Average cost to build a major transmission pipeline 3 to 5 million per mile, if you can get the permits. Why not build the plant closer to a area already in production? No matter what people wish BP was the key to development.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on August 8, 2014 at 4:53pm

I'm not the guy saying they intend to use pipeline gas deerspotter - I dont know what kind of gas will be used and the discussion to my understanding of it revolves around that kernal of an unknown (for one thing). Another believes pipeline  gas will be used - I can understand how a person could interpret there would seem to be more condensibles to recover from what you have called 'wellhead gas' or 'wet gas'.

Another is that according to references Velocys bought Pinto and intends to build this gas to liquids plant and this plant is supposed to be of what the industry considers a rather modest size ($300 million construction cost / 2800 barrels of diesel per day / built on an 80 acre tract / scheduled to be manned by 30 employees).

Another facet of the discussion here inquires: Does this mean more drilling activity for Ashtabula County and surrounds ?

This post to me discusses all of those facets and inquiries.

Your replies are rather negative to even the plant being built.

From what I've read that decision has been made in the affirmative. All of the other facets to me are as yet undecided and remain unknown to all.

That's the way I interpret what I'm reading anyway.

Permalink Reply by Dexter Green on August 8, 2014 at 5:00pm

I meant it in the sense that it's house gas, colloquially.  It's BTU content should be at or below 1,000, thus no need for dehys or anything else along the line.  The Fischer–Tropsch process requires methane.  It is my understanding that before the gas would go into the line leading to Pinto any impurities would be stripped from the raw stream (ethane, pentane, butane, water vapor) and the plant would receive what is commonly used by consumers.  This is based on the fact that Velocys plans to source its gas from the Marcellus and I do not imagine that they'd be getting gas directly from individual wells.  Rather they'll tap in to some existing network, thus my assumption that they'll be getting close to pure methane or house gas.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on August 8, 2014 at 5:56pm

So you and Phil are on the same page about starting with what you call 'house gas' and Phil calls 'residential pipeline gas'.

If that's the input required by the new plant to produce diesel and jet fuel, I can see why one might deduce that the advent of the plant doesn't directly translate to more drilling in the north (unless there isn't enough existing available 'house gas' to support / provide to the new plant and the existing 'house gas' consumers).

Permalink Reply by Dexter Green on August 9, 2014 at 1:52am

I don't know, Joe.  I'm going off of my admittedly limited knowledge of that aspect of the industry so please do not take what I say as gospel.  If there's anyone more knowledgeable than me (hint: there has to be) I'd love to hear from them  Whether this indicates any activity up your way or not I do not know, but it looks like more jobs and money for the Ohio O&G industry, which I'm always in favor of.

Permalink Reply by Philip Thackray on August 8, 2014 at 11:24pm

Joe,

Here is the article that I lifted the picture from: Gas to Liquid.  The input is methane.

It takes 10 mcf (methane) to make a barrel of diesel.  So 2800 bbls per day would require 28,000 mcf per day of input.  There are single gas wells that produce that much - at least initially.

Phil

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on August 9, 2014 at 1:17am
The way I read the advice from both Phil and Dexter it appears the Velocys - Pinto Gas to Liquids Plant will use regular old and common low BTU 'dry' natural gas as is piped to residential and / or industrial consumers all over the country and not 'wet' wellhead gas.

If there's enough of that stuff then there's enough of it; if there's not then there's not; and I don't know how they would make up the required difference myself (other than more development somewhere in the infrastructure).
Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on August 9, 2014 at 2:08am

From the article that I linked to in the OP;

Recent comments by University of West Virginia Professor Tim Carr seem to confirm the speculation proposed above.  He offers that Gulfport’s categorization of condensate vs. NGL’s is unique.  His interpretation is that whenever Gulfport announces well results, and spell out the amount of condensate being produced, the moniker is actually being used to refer to liquid natural gasoline (pentene), a product needing little refinement in order to be converted to vehicle-quality gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.  Short or high-quality pure crude, Carr cannot imagine a more valuable or lucrative product to see in one’s production mix.

So at least in the case of the proposed Baird plant in Columbiana, they will be using the wet gas fractions as a starting point. Makes sense as this is the same company that proposed a coal to jet fuel plant.....just before the Marcellus and Utica emerged to make nat gas so cheap. And using wet gas has to be a lot more feasible than using coal as a starting raw material. 

I am guessing that the Ashtabula plant will using dry gas/methane since they mentioned a specific, well known system for production of the jet fuel. However, it is possible they could use specific wet gas fractions to shorten the process and have a cheaper end product.

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on August 9, 2014 at 2:27am

Thanks Jim.

Noting also, our geography is indicated as being in the 'Rich Condensate and Oil Windows' as I've read in many reports and publications on these pages.

How that impacts well development in our geography considering the scheduled Velocys - Pinto Gas to Liquids Plant seems encouraging to me as they all also seem to me to be naturally complimentary.

Hoping for the best for all of us especially those of us in the northern tier of the Utica Point Pleasant.

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