22nd Nov 2011 11:02
Emir of Qatar inaugurates Pearl GTL Project
The Hague, 22 November 2011: His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar today officially inaugurated the Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) Project, the largest GTL plant in the world and the largest energy project in the state of Qatar. Visiting dignitaries including HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, toured the facility and were briefed on the state-of-the-art technologies used to convert natural gas resources from Qatar's North Field into high quality liquid fuels and products that will be sold at premium all over the world.
Pearl GTL has been jointly developed by Qatar Petroleum and Shell creating an additional route for Qatar to generate value from its enormous supply of gas. Using innovative technology and engineering, Pearl GTL turns natural gas into high quality liquid fuels and products, thereby realizing the full upside of accessing the oil markets.
CEO of Shell Peter Voser said: "Pearl GTL is a tribute to the remarkable partnership between Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The inauguration of Pearl GTL represents an historic milestone for Shell, and for our industry as a whole. It marks the culmination of five years of project delivery, and over 35 years of Gas to Liquids technology development at Shell. We are proud of what has been accomplished and privileged to have contributed to Pearl GTL's success with our innovation, technology and project delivery capabilities. Shell would like to extend its deepest appreciation to the people of Qatar for the enormous support we have received during the development and execution of the Pearl GTL project. We look forward to continuing our partnership through the operations phase, delivering high quality fuels and products right across the world for decades to come."
Pearl GTL is a fully integrated upstream/downstream, world-scale project located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, 80 km north of Doha. It captures the full value chain from offshore development through onshore gas processing to refining of finished products and the distribution of these products right across the world in one project. When fully operational, Pearl GTL will have the capacity to produce 140,000 barrels a day of high quality GTL products (gasoil, naphtha, kerosene, normal-paraffin and lubricants base oils), thereby help meet the increasing global demand for high quality hydrocarbon. It will also produce 120,000 barrels a day of Natural Gas Liquids (liquefied petroleum gas and condensate) and ethane.
The project is being developed in two trains and major construction was completed at the end of 2010. The first train started up in Q1 2011 and the first commercial shipment of gasoil was exported in June 2011. The second train of the plant started up in November 2011 by bringing in sour gas from offshore wells. The gas processing plant has come quickly on line delivering on-spec gas, condensate, LPG and sulphur. The first of the four world scale Air Separation Units in Train 2 is also on-line producing on-spec oxygen.
At peak 52,000 construction workers from 60 countries worked on the construction of Pearl GTL, a project which took 500 million hours to design and build. The project broke many industry records in terms of safety, achieving 77 million hours without a lost time injury in 2010.
Enquiries: Shell International Media Relations +31 (0)70 377 3600 Shell Investor RelationsEurope - Tjerk Huysinga: +31 70 377 3996 United States - Ken Lawrence +1 713 241 2069
Cautionary Note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this press release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ``Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this press release refer to companies in which Royal Dutch Shell either directly or indirectly has control, by having either a majority of the voting rights or the right to exercise a controlling influence. The companies in which Shell has significant influence but not control are referred to as "associated companies" or "associates" and companies in which Shell has joint control are referred to as "jointly controlled entities". In this press release, associates and jointly controlled entities are also referred to as "equity-accounted investments". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect (for example, through our 24% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.) ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ``anticipate'', ``believe'', ``could'', ``estimate'', ``expect'', ``intend'', ``may'', ``plan'', ``objectives'', ``outlook'', ``probably'', ``project'', ``will'', ``seek'', ``target'', ``risks'', ``goals'', ``should'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2010 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov - opens in new window). These factors also should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, November 22, 2011. Neither Royal Dutch Shell nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
We may have used certain terms in this press release, such as resources, that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov - opens in new window. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.
XLONRelated Shares:
RDSA.LRDSB.L