Shell’s Qatar GTL on track for full production by mid-2012

(updates with more detail in paragraphs 5 and 6) 

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Shell is on schedule to have its huge gas-to-liquid (GTL) project in Qatar fully operational by the middle of next year, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major has invested about $18bn-19bn (€12-13bn) in the project.

The Pearl GTL facility, at Ras Laffan, is the world’s biggest with a production capacity of 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas a day when fully operational. This will be processed to generate 120,000 bbl/day of GTL gasoil, kerosene, base oils, n-paraffins and naphtha.

“What we say about Pearl [GTL] is that the project is on track for GTL train 1 across mid-2011, start-up of train 2 before the end of 2011 and fully ramped up by mid-2012,” said the spokesperson in an e-mailed statement.

Dick Benschop, President of Shell Netherlands, said the company had produced its first petroleum wax from the facility at the end of May and expected “that refined products will come out (of the facility) soon”.

“When it is fully ramped it will add almost 8% to Shell’s production worldwide,” Benschop said on Tuesday at the 16th Asia Oil and Gas Conference (AOGC) in Kuala Lumpur.

Pearl GTL is a joint venture between Shell and Qatar Petroleum.

The project is expected to provide the ethane feedstock for a planned cracker project of the two companies in Qatar.

($1 = €0.69)

Additional reporting by James Dennis

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