British Prime Minister visits Pearl GTL project in Qatar

On November 3 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) project in Qatar, the biggest energy project ever launched in the State of Qatar and Shell’s largest single investment worldwide.

The Prime Minister and the British Secretary of State for Environment & Climate Change Ed Miliband, met several hundred British engineers working on the project, which is being constructed by Qatar Petroleum and Shell.

Over $1 billion of orders for goods and services for the project have been placed in the United Kingdom, including a 30,000 tonne steel order to a firm in the North East of England. The conceptual engineering of the plant was executed in London, involving over one million man-hours of design work. The largest process automation system ever built in the energy industry was designed and is being tested in Britain.

Some 35,000 people from over 40 countries are currently working on the construction site in Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Pearl GTL will chemically convert natural gas from Qatar’s massive North Field into 140,000 barrels per day of high quality liquid fuels and products for use around the world. The project will also produce 120,000 barrels per day of condensate and LPG.
GTL products include high quality GTL Fuel, which can be used in diesel engines and can contribute to improving local air quality. It can be blended with conventional diesel or, technically, used pure. GTL Fuel has been trialled in city fleets around the world including in a London bus in 2003.

GTL Jet Fuel can be used in aircraft engines. In February 2008, an Airbus A380 conducted the first test flight of a commercial aircraft using the fuel, flying from Filton, UK, to Toulouse, France. GTL Baseoils are high quality lubricants.

His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, said: “We are glad to welcome the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Environment & Climate Change to Ras Laffan, including to the Pearl project. Qatar is blessed with natural resources which the world needs. Both were able to see the effort we are expending to develop them. We are fortunate that some British companies have accepted our invitation to help in this great endeavour.”

Andy Brown, Shell’s Managing Director of Pearl GTL and Qatar Country Chair said: “We are pleased the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Environment & Climate Change were able to see the scale of the Pearl project. In due course products from this plant may be supplied to the UK, helping meet the demand for energy and contributing to the improvement of local air quality. Meanwhile British engineering ingenuity is playing a vital part in this world beating project.”