First Pearl Gas to Liquids product off-take agreements signed

These are the first agreements that refer to third party product off-take from the Pearl GTL project and represent an important milestone.

The combined volume of the two heads of agreements totals over a quarter of Pearl GTL’s normal paraffin production and is destined for GPC’s proposed linear alkylbenzene (LAB) plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia and TPL’s existing plant in Chennai, India.

Shell and QP are negotiating with other parties concerning the remainder of the normal paraffin volume.

Abdulla H Salatt, Senior Advisor to His Excellency the Deputy Premier and the Minister of Energy & Industry, stated, "GTL represents a strategic diversification for Qatar in the development of our natural gas resources and these agreements are the first results from what we believe is a strong and focused global marketing campaign for Pearl GTL’s products. With GTL Normal Paraffin, Pearl GTL brings to the marketplace a high performance speciality product that will find its way into the growing detergents industry. Working with Shell, we feel confident we will be able to effectively allocate Pearl GTL’s valuable slate of unique GTL products within target markets around the world."

Andy Brown, Managing Director of Pearl GTL commented, "These heads of agreements are an example of the trust that other industries have in our project, our technology and our products. Pearl GTL will offer the global marketplace a diverse slate of high quality GTL fuels and products, and GTL Normal Paraffin, we believe, will be the future feedstock of choice for the LAB industry."

"Gulf Petroproducts is proud to be one of the first companies associated with product off-take from the Pearl GTL project. This agreement will provide our proposed LAB plant with a cost effective and reliable feedstock," added James L Greenberg, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Gulf Petroproducts Company EC.

RM Muthukaruppan, Managing Director of Tamilnadu Petroproducts stated, "This agreement with Pearl GTL is another next step in our company’s ambition to become the leading LAB producer in the region".

For further information, please contact:

Mohamad Sulaiman
Public Relations Department
Qatar Petroleum
Email: sulaiman@qp.com.qa

Lara Koujou
Communications Advisor
Qatar Shell
Email: lara.koujou@shell.com

Notes to editors

Normal paraffin is a feedstock for the production of linear akylbenzene (LAB). LAB is the pre-cursor to linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS), the most widely used surfactant in the world, commonly found in detergents and other household cleaning products.

Qatar is now one of the world’s largest exporters of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Gas to Liquids (GTL) brings Qatari gas to completely new markets and is a strategic diversification in the development of Qatar’s natural gas resources. Pearl GTL is a major part of the wise vision of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, to make Qatar the GTL capital of the world.

Qatar Petroleum and Shell’s integrated Pearl GTL project is located in Ras Laffan, Qatar, and is due to start up around the end of the decade. The GTL plant will manufacture 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of clean liquid GTL products, including GTL Naphtha, GTL Kerosene, GTL Fuel, GTL Normal Paraffin and GTL Base Oils (for lubricants).

Gulf Petro Products Company E.C (GPC)is a Bahraini Exempted Company that has been established by Tamilnadu Petroproduct Limited (TPL) and Saudi Offset Limited partnership (SOLP) to develop, plan, finance and implement the project to manufacture LAB in Saudi Arabia, under the Economic Offset Programme of Saudi Arabia. SOLP is a Limited Partnership Fund formed by Raytheon, Thales & Devcorp International for the development of and investment in projects under the Saudi Economic Offset Programme.

Tamilnadu Petroproducts Limited (TPL) is an Indian petrochemicals company that has been producing LAB since 1987 and is committed to responding to customers in an innovative manner, regularly offering them new products and services. This has led to TPL becoming one of the most successful companies in its field, at the forefront of Indian corporate development. TPL also manufactures epichlorohydrin and caustic soda.