Originally Posted By: benjy
i was surprised to read a while ago that this "super" oil needed hydrocracking similar to other crude products, but it said less processing was needed. better than typical crude but still behind PAO + Ester base oils, but a LOT cheaper + surely good enough for most applications
The idea of converting 'free' stranded gas to make fuel & lube base oil sounds a wizard idea until you factor in the cost of the processing plant necessary to make this a reality. The final capital cost for the Shell Pearl GTL plant is supposedly $US 24 BILLION !! Even by oil industry standards, this is eye-wateringly high. As I understand things, this cost is borne entirely by Shell as Qatar's commitment to the project is simply to provide gas to the plant free-of-charge.
Also remember that this plant primarily exists to make fuels; GTL base oil is really just 'the heavy bit that's left over'. With oil at around $US 50/barrel, fuel product prices are also correspondingly low and it makes no sense whatsoever to splash out mega bucks to do the gas conversion. I'm sure internally Shell allocate a PAO-competitive transfer value to GTL base oil but make no mistake, if normal economic rules applied, this stuff would never have seen the light of day.
Oh, and I might take issue with the 'less wear' claim for GTL base oils. At equivalent base oil viscosity, I suspect GTL would very likely give much the same level of wear as any other base oil.