Pearl Gas-to-Liquids Project, Ras Laffan, Qatar

Key Data Following the successful opening of the first phase of the Oryx gas-to-liquids f acility in June 2006 Qatar Petroleum launched its new GTL project 'Pearl' in Jul y 2006. The project is jointly owned by Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell an d includes the development of two offshore natural gas resources in the Qatar No rth Field. The Pearl GTL project also includes transporting and processing the gas to extra ct natural gas liquids and ethane, and the conversion of the remaining gas into liquid hydrocarbon products through the construction of a new fully integrated G TL complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City situated 80km north of Doha. The offshore platforms are connected to the plant through a 60km pipeline. Construction of the plant began in February 2007. The first sour gas began to fl ow into the plant in March 2011. When fully operational, the Pearl GTL project will have a capacity to produce 14 0,000bpd of GTL products and 120,000bpd oil equivalent of LPG, condensate and et hane. Over its lifetime the integrated project will produce upstream resources of appr oximately three billion barrels of oil equivalent. Technology and investment in Pearl GTL "The first sour gas began to flow into the Pearl GTL plant in March 2011." The Pearl GTL project is based on Shell's proprietary GTL technology, which has been used for more than ten years following the first commercial GTL plant of it s type in Bintulu, Malaysia. The GTL project, which began the planning process in July 2004, was developed un der a development and production sharing agreement with the Government of the St ate of Qatar. The agreement covers offshore and onshore costs, with Shell providing 100% of th e project's funding, which is estimated to be between $18bn and $19bn. Production from the first Pearl GTL train (phase I) began in March 2011. Start-u p of the second train is expected to follow by 2012 (phase II). The plant uses S hell's proprietary Shell Middle Distillates Synthesis (SMDS) technology. The fac ilities are operated by Qatar Shell GTL, a Shell subsidiary. Contractors for the Pearl GTL project JGC Corporation of Japan and Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) were awarded the proje ct management contract for the project in mid-2005. In addition to the developme nt of offshore upstream gas production facilities, the project comprises the dev elopment of the onshore GTL plant. The JGC / KBR joint venture completed the basis of design / basis design package and the subsequent front end engineering design in late 2004. The JGC / KBR rol e included project management and start-up support of the overall onshore Pearl GTL complex, along with engineering, procurement and construction management of the GTL synthesis, utilities and infrastructure sections of the complex. In June 2005, Honeywell was awarded a contract to provide front-end engineering design for the automation and control systems. Honeywell's work included process automation and control including asset management and fieldbus solutions, safet y, fire and gas, and the specification for a multi-purpose dynamic simulator to be used for dynamic studies, engineering verifications and operator training. "The JGC / KBR joint venture completed the basis design package and FEED in late 2004." Honeywell, in consultation with Shell, developed the Shell Engineering Toolkit t o meet the tender requirements. Honeywell provided the solutions that meet the s tandards of instrumentation engineering solutions powered by INtools. In August

2006, the Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Toyo Engineering consortium won the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the liquid processin g unit. In September 2006 General Electric won the contract to supply six gas tu rbines, equipped with dual fuel Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle combustio n systems. In addition to the 42MW gas turbine-generators, the scope of the contract includ ed IGCC combustion engineering, combustion system lab testing, spare parts and t raining. The gas turbines are installed in the Pearl GTL plant in a cogeneration configuration to produce 180MW of power for use in the facility. In July 2008, Cannonway Consultants were contracted to provide commercial, contr actual and quantity surveying services for the GTL plant. In January 2011, Qatar Shell GTL awarded the framework agreement to Kentz Corporation for providing pl ant change request execution services for three years. Pearl operations At the upstream end of the operation 1.6 billion cubic feet per day of wellhead gas will be produced from the North Field and transported and processed to produ ce approximately 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of condensate, liquef ied petroleum gas and ethane. At the downstream end dry gas is used as feedstock for a new onshore integrated GTL complex, which will manufacture an additional 140,000bpd of liquid hydrocarb on products. The Pearl GTL complex will consist of two 70,000bpd GTL trains and associated fa cilities. The plant will produce a range of clean liquid products and fuels, com prising naphtha, GTL fuel, normal paraffins, kerosene and lubricant-based oils. GTL fuel is the largest component of the product slate and is suitable for use i n existing light- and heavy-duty diesel engines. It also has lower emissions at the point of use, which makes it important as a low sulphur fuel in Europe and t he US (both introduced more stringent emissions policies in 2005). Qatar's GTL ambitions "Qatar aims to become the leading exporter of LNG in the world by 2012." Qatar aims to become the leading exporter of LNG in the world by 2012, by which time the country's annual gas production will reach 77 million tonnes. Qatar's o il production will also increase from 800,000bpd to one million bpd by the end o f 2011. Qatar is committed to investing over $130bn in oil and gas infrastructure projec ts to increase its annual production to 18 million tonnes by 2016. The Pearl GTL project will accelerate the strategy of diversifying natural gas u sage and will serve to promote Qatar's ambition of being the GTL capital of the world. The Pearl Gas-to-Liquids project is situated at Ras Laffan, 80km north of Doha , Qatar. The Pearl GTL project is totally integrated and involves upstream and downstre am production. Pipe racks such as these will be part of the Pearl GTL complex. Honeywell is providing automation and control equipment, including one of the largest fieldbuses ever constructed. Storage tank farms will be important to store products prior to export.