Finding another way to avoid the waste and lost revenue from stranded gas in a pipeline-constrained portion of the Permian Basin could have global applications, according to two business partners in Texas interviewed in the June-July Oil and Gas Journal.
Boosted by a $20 million investment by Midland-based partner and producer Diamondback Energy, Houston-based Verde Clean Fuels says it has successfully field-tested its proprietary concept for a world-first natural gas-to-gasoline synthetic gas plant using Diamondback’s stranded gas as feedstock. The partners say the proprietary four-step process would generate gasoline ready for ground transportation in cars and trucks without further refining.
The projected cost to full-scale operation is $325 million; the eventual 50 MMcfd of stranded gas for feedstock would generate over 4,300 b/d of RBOB (Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate) gasoline. The plant will be in sparsely populated Martin County, Texas, the second county east of New Mexico’s southeast corner. Production is slated to come online in the second half of 2026.
The technology, referred to as STG+ (i.e., synthesis gas-to-gasoline plus liquid fuels), applies a four-stage process perfected in New Jersey where syngas natural gas is converted to methanol and then to gasoline via what is referred to as a “continuous process loop.”
The loop, for instance, would take non-condensed gas at the end of the fourth stage to re-cycle back through to Stage 1. Process water is reportedly the sole by-product of the method.
Verde officials say their ready-to-pump gasoline has 60% of the CO2 in current refined gasoline. They add that future efforts include refining or adding to their STG+ technology to explore the viability of producing low-carbon diesel and aviation fuel by similar means.
Oil and gas history has a circular ring to it in this instance. Edwin Drake, for instance, is credited with “discovering” gasoline as a byproduct of the conversion process of distilling oil to create kerosene for heating. It wasn’t until Henry Ford popularized mass-scale automobiles and their cultural effects that gasoline became part of American life.
By Jim Felton for oilandgas360.com
