Pearl start-up coincides with the prospect of a promising decade for GTL

摘要

The start-up of Shell's Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) project planned for this year in Qatar, combined with the convergence of a number of external economic factors, heralds a promising new decade for an industry that has had its share of disappointments. With natural gas looking increasingly abundant, and oil looking increasingly expensive, the market fundamentals for GTL have never looked better. Getting the technology to work on a commercial scale remains the big challenge, however. In the context of a global push for greener energy policies and the current, low, gas prices Gas Matters looks at the technological challenges and explains why the GTL option may become a more popular option for monetising increasing volumes of associated and non-associated gas.