By Pratap John
THE foundation stone for the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant – Pearl GTL was laid by HH the Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at Ras Laffan yesterday.
The multi-billion dollar Pearl GTL is a fully integrated gas-to-liquids project being developed by Qatar and Shell under a Development and Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA). The agreement covers offshore and onshore project development and operations, with Shell providing 100% of project funding.
The Pearl GTL will produce some 140,000 barrels per day of GTL and 120,000bpd of condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane in two trains. The production from the first GTL train is slated for 2010, with the start-up of the second train scheduled a year later. Each train will have a capacity of 700,000bpd of GTL.
The fully integrated upstream/downstream Pearl GTL project covers all aspects of the value chain, from the reservoir in the North Field to the marketing of products.
About 1.6bn cu ft a day of wellhead gas will be produced from the North Field and processed to produce GTL, condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane.
Shell and Qatar Petroleum said most of the large equipment for the state-of-the-art plant at Ras Laffan has already been ordered. The orders for piping materials have also been placed.
Contracts worth over $10bn have been placed around the world for equipment relating to the Pearl GTL project.
Work is now going on at eight different locations worldwide. And site preparation works at Ras Laffan have already started.
The Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry, HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said: “By any measurement Pearl GTL is impressive. I believe it will make an important contribution to supplying the world with cleaner and more efficient fuels and lubricants. It will also play an important role in Qatar’s development.”
Expressing his delight at partnering with Shell on the Pearl GTL project, al-Attiyah said: “Shell has considerable experience in building and operating GTL plants in fuel marketing. Shell’s proven technology is being used for Qatar’s benefit and will ensure Pearl GTL is developed and operated safely and efficiently.”
“GTL is the fuel of future,” al-Attiyah said. Enhanced performance is only one of the benefits GTL offers. The GTL system also offers significant air quality benefits at point of use as a result of the reduction of pollutants such as sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and particulates.
“GTL is cleaner than other fuels. Vehicles that use it are also quieter than those using conventional diesel. In urban areas particularly, the use of GTL fuel can help improve people’s quality of life and health. We firmly believe GTL is the most effective alternative fuel for the replacement of petroleum based products and reducing local emissions,” he said.
Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said the Pearl GTL project, the largest in scale and size anywhere in the world, could make clean products and serve many markets worldwide.
“We are glad we are building it together with Qatar Petroleum,” he said.
“Once completed, Pearl GTL will be a real showpiece,” he said.
Van der Veer said the implementation of the Pearl GTL project was “very timely”.
“There is so much talk in the world about climate change and I think the very clean fuels out of GTL will be an answer to concerns about rising pollution,” he said.
He said Shell now marketed gas-to-liquids components through some 4,000 retail outlets worldwide.
“We have demonstration projects in many places in the world. We work together with Audi, Toyota, Volkswagen and Mercedes. We have made a lot of progress with GTL technology and when the plant is onstream we can accelerate all those developments,” Van der Veer said.
Pearl GTL is one of the largest equity investments Shell has ever made.
“It shows our commitment to Qatar and the GTL technology,” he said.
Shell’s first GTL plant at Bintulu in Malaysia is making profits. However, the Malaysian plant with a capacity of 14,700bpd is small when compared to Pearl GTL.
Britain’s Prince Charles was the chief guest at the foundation stone laying. Shell Gas and Power CEO Linda Cook and Pearl GTL managing director and Shell country chairman Andy Brown were among those present.
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