Shell has invested close to $21bn in Qatar in the last six years, executive vice-president Andy Brown has said.In Qatar, Shell is set to start up the Pearl GTL project, its joint venture with QP, which will chemically convert Qatar’s abundant gas resources into high quality liquid fuels and products. Brown was speaking at the “Business & Investment in Qatar Forum” on Wednesday.Shell is investing between $18bn and $19bn in the Pearl GTL project at Ras Laffan, he said.A fortnight ago, Shell opened its first wells offshore and is now making “excellent progress” in progressively starting up the process units. “We already produce condensate and LPG and later this year we will produce GTL products at the Pearl GTL plant. At peak, we will manufacture 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of high quality GTL fuels, chemical feedstock and lubricant base oils as well as 120,000 barrels per day (oil equivalent) of conventional condensate, LPG and ethane. This project will deliver value to Shell and the state of Qatar for many decades to come,” Brown said.He said Shell was “delighted” to be invited for investments in Qatar’s liquefied natural gas portfolio. “A fortnight ago we celebrated reaching 100% output from Qatargas 4, where we are a 30% shareholder in the 7.8mn tonnes per year (tpy) LNG train. “Currently, we have Shell staff helping with the operation of Qatargas. About 1,200 Shell officers and crew provide operations and maintenance services in running the Nakilat fleet of 25 LNG tankers, one of the most impressive marine fleets anywhere in the world,” Brown said.He said that Shell wants to invest more in Qatar. In line with this, Shell signed an exploration licence agreement to explore the deep pre-Khuff horizons. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with QP to develop a world scale chemicals plant at Ras Laffan featuring the largest mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) plant ever to have been built. Under the MoU, the two companies would build a mono-ethylene glycol plant of up to 1.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) capacity using Shell’s proprietary OMEGA (Only MEG Advantaged) technology.The plant will also be able to produce other olefin derivatives, which will boost capacity to more than 2mn tonnes of finished products.“So the investment journey continues ... but we also now look overseas, where together with PetroChina and QP international we are planning a world scale petrochemical and refinery project in Zhejiang province, China. “Today we enjoy a rich array of joint investments with QP in Qatar and overseas. QP is a model of an effective NOC, establishing the investment climate, stimulating innovation, encouraging investors to break new ground, to push the boundaries and set new records,” Brown added.