We have a 34% interest in Petroleum Development Oman (PDO); the Omani government has a 60% interest. PDO is the operator of more than 160 oil fields, mainly located in central and southern Oman over an area of nearly 114,000 square kilometres. The concession expires in 2044. During 2013, the Amal Steam enhanced oil recovery project was brought on stream. The project is expected to ramp up over a number of years and produce some 20 thousand b/d of oil at peak production.

We are also participating in the Mukhaizna oil field (Shell interest 17%) where steam flooding, an enhanced oil recovery method, is being applied on a large scale.

We have a 30% interest in Oman LNG, which mainly supplies Asian markets under long-term contracts. We also have an 11% indirect interest in Qalhat LNG, another Oman-based LNG facility.

Pearl in Qatar is the world’s largest GTL plant. Shell operates the plant under a development and production-sharing contract with the government of Qatar. The fully integrated facility includes production, transport and processing of approximately 1.6 billion scf/d of wellhead gas from Qatar’s North Field with installed capacity of about 140 thousand boe/d of high-quality liquid hydrocarbon products and 120 thousand boe/d of NGL and ethane. We have a 30% interest in Qatargas 4, which comprises integrated facilities to produce approximately 1.4 billion scf/d of natural gas from Qatar’s North Field, an onshore gas-processing facility and an LNG train with a collective production capacity of 7.8 mtpa of LNG and 70 thousand boe/d of NGL. The LNG is shipped mainly to markets in China, Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

A service boat at one of the offshore
platforms supplying gas to Shell’s Pearl
GTL plant – the world’s largest
gas-to-liquids facility – near Doha, Qatar.

We are the operator of Block D under the terms of an exploration and production-sharing contract with Qatar Petroleum, which represents the national government. We have a 75% interest; PetroChina holds the remaining 25% interest.

In Abu Dhabi, we held a concessionary interest of 9.5% in the oil and gas operations run by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) from 1939 to January 2014, when the licence expired. We also have a 15% interest in the licence of Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Limited (GASCO), which expires in 2028. GASCO exports propane, butane and heavier-liquid hydrocarbons, which it extracts from the wet natural gas associated with the oil produced by ADCO.

In 2013, we were chosen by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to participate in a 30-year joint venture to potentially develop the major Bab sour gas reservoirs in Abu Dhabi (Shell interest 40%). Shell and ADNOC are currently in a period of commercial and technical work that may lead to development, subject to the signing of the respective joint-venture agreements. It is intended that the joint venture will be the operator, and that the gas will supply the local market in the United Arab Emirates.