Bp Corporation North America Inc.

Ernesto Fischer-Calderon

Michael D Briscoe

Jeffrey H Sawchuk

Michael J Gradassi

An integrated process for producing LNG and GTL products is provided comprising cooling natural gas in at least one cooling step so as to provide a cooled natural gas stream; processing the cooled natural gas stream in at least two expansion/separation cycles, each expansion/separation cycle comprising the Substeps of (a) isentropically or isenthalpically expanding at least a portion of the cooled natural gas steam for producing a natural gas vapor component and a LNG component, (b) separating at least a portion of the natural gas vapor component from the LNG component, and (c) repeating substeps (a) through (b) wherein at least a portion of the LNG component from the previous expansion/separation cycle is directed to each successive Substep (a) and wherein the final LNG product is the LNG component after the final separating step and is substantially liquid at substantially atmospheric pressure; and converting at least a portion of one or more of the expansion/separation cycle natural gas vapor components into a GTL product.

Integrated processing of natural gas into liquid products

The present invention is directed to a process for producing LNG by directing a feed stream comprising natural gas to a cooling stage that (a) cools the feed stream in at least one cooling step producing a cooled feed stream, (b) expands the cooled feed stream in at least one expansion step by reducing the pressure of the cooled feed stream producing a refrigerated vapor component and a liquid component, and (c) separates at least a portion of the refrigerated vapor component from the liquid component wherein at least a portion of the cooling for the process is derived from at least a portion of the refrigerated vapor component; and repeating steps (a) through (c) one or more times until at least substantial portion of the feed stream in the first cooling stage is processed into LNG wherein the feed stream in step (a) comprises at least a portion of the liquid component produced from a previous cooling stage.

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Missouri City, TX, United States of America

Ernesto Fischer-Calderon