To meet the world’s growing energy demands, bringing new supply sources to market is critical.
Gas resources are plentiful...
...and geographically diverse.
Globally we see strong demand for natural gas...
...the cleanest burning fossil fuel.
Shell is a leading company in liquefied natural gas...
LNG
...and gas-to-liquids.
GTL
Let’s look at GTL.
GTL creates an additional route to monetise a country’s resources of natural gas...
...by turning them into high quality liquid fuels and products.
It offers a way to access the international oil products market, which is vast and global.
This is attractive when gas markets are remote, and when gas resource holders want to diversify risk.
We believe that combining a partner’s local expertise and know-how with Shell’s global reach...
...leading technology and project delivery experience can be synergetic.
GTL is the umbrella term for the technology that is used to produce a suite of synthetic hydrocarbon liquids...
...through the Fischer-Tropsch process.
At the heart of Shell’s GTL Technology is the proprietary Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis process.
The GTL process consists of three stages:
In the first stage, natural gas is partially oxidised to create a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide...
...which is then known as synthesis gas, or syngas
Impurities are removed from the syngas.
The second stage converts the synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons using a catalyst.
In this stage, a liquid is formed which looks and feels like wax at room temperature.
The final stage is cracking and isomerisation, which ‘cuts’ the molecule chains into shorter lengths.
This yields high quality liquids such as diesel...
...kerosene...
...and lubricant oil.
GTL products are colourless, odourless liquid hydrocarbons of very high quality...
...that have very low levels of impurities like sulphur, aromatics and nitrogen.
GTL products include:
GTL naphtha...
...which is used as a feedstock for chemical plants to produce building blocks for the plastics industry.
GTL kerosene...
...which can be blended with aircraft fuel or used for heating and lighting.
GTL normal paraffin...
...a premium feedstock for detergent production.
GTL gasoil...
...which is an alternative diesel fuel.
GTL base oil...
...a high quality base material for finished lubricants in engines...
...and GTL wax...
...which is a high quality product used in applications ranging from adhesives...
...to printing inks, candles, construction and food packaging materials.
Shell’s involvement with gas-to-liquids has been a 40 year journey of technology and product innovation.
Shell has been active in Malaysia since 1891...
...and opened the world’s first commercial GTL plant in Bintulu in 1993.
We operate this plant on behalf of the Joint Venture with PETRONAS...
...Mitsubishi and the Sarawak state.
Almost all of the staff and marketers at our Bintulu facility are Malaysian.
We work in close partnership with Qatar Petroleum in the Pearl GTL plant...
...which ramped up to full production at the end of 2012 and is the largest GTL plant in the world.
Shell continues to improve its GTL technology...
...enhancing design...
...adding new GTL products...
...and optimising the process...
...including research work in the Netherlands, Germany, Qatar and Malaysia.
Recognising that there is a demand in the market for smaller GTL facilities...
...between the size of our Bintulu plant and Pearl GTL...
...Shell has developed a GTL technology concept that could allow considerable flexibility in capacity.
It builds on Shell’s proven GTL capability and leadership.
Shell has a proven track record of GTL commercial performance and innovation...
...in close cooperation with host governments and partners.
With recent advances unlocking vast new supplies of natural gas across the globe...
...we see more opportunities for GTL to help a country to boost its economy...
...by building up local gas based industry.