Australia’s Linc Energy has struck a deal with Norway’s Aker Solutions to jointly develop the design of Linc’s proposed 20,000bpd commercial gas-to-liquids facility planned for South Australia.

The scope of this phase of the development includes the confirmation and initial optimisation of the process configuration for the GTL complex.

It will also include the identification and refinement of key technologies and equipment for the facility.

The conceptual design phase will span six months and will start in early August 2009, with a scheduled completion date of mid-February 2010, said Linc.