122- www. world- petroleum. org 6.8- Understanding oil and gas One reason for higher costs is that Escravos GTL is located in isolated swamp-land in the Niger Delta, as opposed to Qatar's state- of- the- art Ras Laffan Industrial City. Just preparing the Escravos site in-volved dredging nearly 4 million cubic me-tres of sand to make way for the sophisti-cated system of steel piles being used to support the plant. Chevron, the operator, has also had to cope with Nigeria's security threat and to estab-lish a new, high- tech sector for the Nigerian energy industry. Yet the original budget was $ 1.7 billion, so costs look set more than to tri-ple. The project's planned start- up date has also slipped from 2009 to 2012. Other poten-tial GTL developers may look on aspects of the venture as a cautionary tale. Reasons for optimism Then again, there are reasons for opti-mism. Cost inflation is in reverse, following the collapse in oil prices in mid- 2008, and this could tempt developers back into the market. Certainly, technology- development in synthetic fuels is continuing. In addition, there are other ways of using FT technology. For example, when oil is pro-duced offshore, natural gas is produced with it, but often - especially in remote offshore locations - there will be no pipeline to ex-port this so- called associated gas to market and building one would be too expensive. Two commonly used solutions, burning the gas off ( flaring) or venting it, are not sustain-able: both are bad for the environment and a waste of a valuable resource. CompactGTL, a privately owned UK tech-nology company, says FT technology could be the answer. Its idea - which has drawn interest from Brazil's state- controlled energy company, Petrobras, predominantly an off-shore oil producer - is to convert associ-ated gas into synthetic crude oil at the point of production, using FT technology. The syn-thetic crude oil is then mixed into the flow of conventional crude oil being pumped out of the oil field and exported to market. Not only does this get round the environ-mental problem presented by flaring and venting, but it generates a new and lucra-tive source of revenue by turning previously useless gas into a marketable and valuable commodity. CompactGTL estimates that as-sociated gas reserves around the world with no commercial value exceed 28 trillion cubic metres - a large and potentially lucrative market with an environmental dividend. ?? Oryx GTL, the world's first commercial GTL plant, opened for business in 2006 Photo courtesy SasolChevron

123- www. energy- future. com 7.1- The World Petroleum Council The world's premier oil and gas forum The World Petroleum Council is the world's premier global oil and gas forum and is the only international organisation repre-senting all aspects of the petroleum sec-tor. 2008 marked the 75th anniversary of the organization. The WPC was established in 1933 with the intent to promote the manage-ment of the world's petroleum resources for the benefit of mankind. The WPC's prime value to the oil and gas industry is to catalyse and facilitate dialogue amongst stakeholders that will contribute to finding solutions to key technical, social, en-vironmental and management issues facing the industry. In doing so, the WPC will con-tribute towards sustainable growth. The WPC provides a neutral and non- po-litical forum and works to bring together in dialogue the various sectors of society that have views on specific issues. WPC is a non- advocacy, non- political or-ganisation and has accreditation as a non-governmental organisation ( NGO) from the United Nations ( UN). The WPC is dedicated to the application of scientific advances in the oil and gas industries, to technology transfer and to the use of the world's petro-leum resources for the benefit of all. Headquartered in London, the World Petroleum Council includes 60 member coun-tries worldwide representing over 95% of glo-bal oil and gas production and consumption. WPC membership is unique as it includes both OPEC and non- OPEC countries with representation of national oil companies as well as independent oil companies. Each country has a national committee made up from representatives of the oil and gas industry, academia and research insti-tutions and government departments. Its governing body is the Council consisting of representation from each of the country National Committees. The World Petroleum Congress Every three years, the WPC organises the World Petroleum Congress as the prin-cipal meeting place for the international oil and gas industry. Hosted by one of its mem-ber countries, the triennial Congress is also known as the " Olympics" of the petroleum industry and covers all aspects of the indus-try from technological advances in upstream and downstream operations to the role of natural gas and renewables, management of the industry and its social, economic and environmental impact. In addition, outside stakeholders such as governments, other industry sectors, NGOs, academia and international institu-tions have also joined in the dialogue. Qatar will be the host of the 20th World Petroleum Congress in 2011. Beyond the triennial Congress, the World Petroleum Council is regularly involved with a number of other meetings such as the WPC Youth Forum, the WPC- UN Global List of Congresses 2011 20th WPC Doha 200819th WPC Madrid 200518th WPC Johannesburg 200217th WPC Rio 200016th WPC Calgary 199715th WPC Beijing 199414th WPC Stavanger 199113th WPC Buenos Aires 198712th WPC Houston 198311th WPC London 197910th WPC Bucharest 19759th WPC Tokyo 19718th WPC Moscow 19677th WPC Mexico City 19636th WPC Frankfurt 19595th WPC New York 19554th WPC Rome 19513rd WPC The Hague 19372nd WPC Paris 19331st WPC London