GTL

Our GTL technology turns natural gas into valuable, high-quality transport fuels, motor oils and ingredients for everyday necessities such as plastics, detergents and cosmetics. It is the result of more than 40 years of research, development and commercial experience. It enables natural gas resource holders to access the global oil products market, which helps those who want to diversify risk.

Shell has achieved a leading competitive position in gas-to-liquids, with uniquely differentiated premium products, that enable us to capture a strong margin uplift across Shell’s end-to-end integrated value-chain; we are adding value at every turn.

Our proprietary Shell GTL technology is at the heart of our GTL plants. We have filed more than 3,500 patents in developing our gas-to-liquids process.

In 1993, we opened the world’s first commercial GTL plant in Bintulu, Malaysia with a capacity of 14,700 boe/d.

In 2011, we started up Pearl GTL in Qatar with a capacity of about 140 thousand boe/d of high-quality liquid hydrocarbon products and 120 thousand boe/d of natural gas liquids (NGL) and ethane.

Recognising the market demand for mid-sized GTL facilities between the scales of SMDS (Bintulu) and Pearl GTL, Shell has developed a more-flexible technology that can be used for a range of GTL plant sizes.

Natural gas is abundant, versatile and affordable. GTL can help countries with natural gas resources grow their economies, as new gas supplies come on-stream to satisfy growing global demand for liquid products.

GTL products are colourless, odourless liquid hydrocarbons of very high quality that have very low levels of impurities like sulphur, aromatics and nitrogen.

They are very similar to oil-derived products but, when burned, produce fewer pollutants and particulate matter. As urbanisation around the world increases, we believe GTL provides governments with a viable solution to improve local air quality.

Integrated Gas assets: LNG liquefaction plants, LNG regasification terminals and GTL plants