Shell’s Pearl GTL plant enters planned maintenance

Feb. 27, 2015
Qatar Shell Ltd., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has started a scheduled maintenance turnaround on one of two identical production trains at its Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Qatar Shell Ltd., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has started a scheduled maintenance turnaround on one of two identical production trains at its Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Planned maintenance activities at the train, which accounts for half of the plant’s total GTL production capacity of 140,000 b/d, will continue for about 2 months, Shell said.

Shell, which operates Pearl GTL under a development and production-sharing agreement with Qatar Petroleum, did not disclose details on specific maintenance projects to be executed during the turnaround.

In late 2014, however, Shell Qatar did let a contract to a division of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Montreal, to provide long-term engineering, procurement, and construction management services related to plant changes, as well as minor base and medium projects for a new phase of the Pearl GTL project (OGJ Online, Dec. 11, 2014).

While no details have emerged regarding this “new phase” of Pearl GTL, SNC-Lavalin said the project would allow Shell Qatar to continue to enhance local development.

Launched in July 2006, major construction on the Pearl GTL project wrapped in 2010, with the gas processing plant starting production of condensate, LPG, and sulfur in March 2011 (OGJ Online, Mar. 23, 2011).

The complex, which also has the ability to produce 120,000 b/d of NGLs and ethane, ramped up to its full GTL production near the end of 2012.

In addition to producing kerosene, gas oil, and naphtha from GTLs, Pearl GTL uses Shell’s patented process of converting natural gas into a clear base oil to produce Shell PurePlus technology base oils, which were formally introduced to the global market in a series of phased releases beginning in early 2014 (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2014).