Figure 1.
Pearl GTL Plant at night.
Q
atar’s North Field is the world’s largest natural gas field, containing
approximately 15% of the world’s total gas. Tapping that tremendous
energy potential is Pearl GTL, the largest gas to liquids facility in the world.
The facility is fed by subsea pipelines through which flows sour gas from
offshore platforms 60 km off the Qatar coast.
The project, engineered by Shell and Qatar Petroleum, has the capacity to extract
1.6 billion ft
3
/d of gas from the North Field, which can be processed into 120 000 bpd
of condensate and natural gas liquids and 140 000 bpd of gas to liquids (GTL) products.
Extraction, production and distribution of natural gas involves tens of thousands of
discrete steps and processes that must be executed with remarkable precision. There
is a science to gas production, especially at the scale of Pearl GTL, so it should be no
surprise that we find state-of-the-art laboratories at the centre of operations.
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