A SkyCat-1500, an extended variant of the largest vehicle in the family and designed to carry a payload of 1,500 tons over long distances, offers a profitable and environmentally benevolent means of transporting natural gas in gaseous form direct from well-head to user terminal.

Volumes: the SkyCat-1500 SkyGas will lift some 2.5 million cubic metres of natural gas (NG) in gaseous form at a time straight from the well-head and discharge it directly into the end-user delivery flange.

Payload provides the lift: apart from 10% helium to support the return leg, all the lift is provided by the cargo itself on the outward leg and aerodynamically on the return.

Safety: the flammability of NG lies within a narrow band and, in the event of a hull breach, the gas would rise upwards and disperse – considered by industry experts as significantly less dangerous than a LNG carrier suffering a containment loss.

Low cost: SkyGas can transport NG at a cost of approx. $1.00 per 1,000 cubic feet over an A-B distance of 1,000km and approx. $3.50 per 1,000 cu. ft. over 3,000km.

Key opportunities: the SkyGas system can offer overriding cost benefits in those fields where gas volumes are too small or the political risk too high to warrant pipeline/LNG investment or where the fields are remote or not readily accessible.

Eliminates liquefaction: the system avoids any need for liquefaction, LNG transport and final re-gasification, with all the intensive capital costs and safety risks involved.

Low risk: by definition a mobile asset, the SkyGas system avoids the risks associated with large-scale fixed assets in politically unstable regions of the world.

Environmental benefits: capture of gas that is otherwise flared off has a major and directly quantifiable benefit to the environment.