Gulf States

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 around 114,000 square kilometres. The concession expires in 2044. During 2014, the Amal steam enhanced oil recovery project has been ramping up towards its expected peak production following a successful start-up in 2013. 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 LNG facility in the country.

Pipelines at the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar.

Pearl in Qatar is the world’s largest GTL plant. Shell operates it under a development and production-sharing contract with the government. The fully integrated facility includes production, transport and processing of approximately 1.6 billion scf/d of gas from Qatar’s North Field. It has an installed capacity of about 140 thousand boe/d of high-quality liquid hydrocarbon products and 120 thousand boe/d of NGL and ethane. In 2014, Pearl produced approximately 4.5 million tonnes of GTL products. Of Pearl’s two trains, the first train is undergoing maintenance in the first quarter of 2015, for an estimated two-month period. We have a 30% interest in Qatargas 4, which comprises integrated facilities to produce about 1.4 billion scf/d of 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 condensate and NGL. The LNG is shipped mainly to China, Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

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 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 gas associated with the oil produced by ADCO. We also participate in a 30-year joint venture to potentially develop the Bab sour gas reservoirs in Abu Dhabi (Shell interest 40%). Shell and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company are in a period of commercial and technical work that may lead to development, subject to the signing of the respective joint-venture agreements.