Gas to Wire as an Alternative to Natural Gas Monetization of the Pre-Salt Province in Brazil

Abstract

In a global context of an irreversible trend of decarbonization of the economy, natural gas plays a prominent role in the global commitment to reduce carbon indices, and its exploration will contribute to the transition of the world's electric and energy matrix. Brazil has enormous potential when it comes to natural gas, particularly in the pre-salt province, which is considered to be the largest oil discovery in the Southern Hemisphere in the last thirty years. If on the one hand, the pre-salt has a great potential for natural gas production, on the other, there are enormous technological and logistical challenges to enable the commercial use and monetization of this gas produced. In this context, the present work proposes to present a contribution to the study of the use of Gas to Wire (GTW) as a technological alternative for the use and monetization of the natural gas from pre-salt province. For that, a review of the specialized literature, including specific periodic data in O&G, and an economic evaluation of the use of GTW in the pre-salt province were carried out, comparing it with the concept of a GTW plant in an onshore environment. In an optimistic production scenario, and even with the expected expansion of the pre-salt gas flow line routes, the difference between the natural gas produced and the injected, burnt gas, used in the offshore site and outflow facilities, will be positive at 15 MMm3/day and will cause operators to seek alternatives for valuation of this resource, since if commercial use is not viable, operators will simply have to paralyze the development and production of their fields, whereas pre-salt natural gas is generally associated with oil. The GTW emerges an alternative technology for the utilization and monetization of natural gas across the inflexibility of gas production not associated with the pre-salt fields. The economic costs for deploying an offshore GTW system and the level of energy cost aiming the use of pre-salt natural gas were competitive accounting for 84% to 91% of the costs of generating a GTW plant in an onshore environment. The case study demonstrates that the concept of GTW can be economically viable, with limitations, such as technological alternative for the utilization and monetization of natural gas across the inflexibility of gas production not associated with the pre-salt fields.