VZCZCXRO9587
PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHDO #0639/01 2990523
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 260523Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9456
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 0767

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DOHA 000639 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TRGY TNGD ENRG KMPI QA
SUBJECT: QATAR MOVES FORWARD ON GAS TO LIQUID INNOVATION 
 
REF: A. DOHA 604 
     ¶B. DOHA 458 
 
-------------- 
(U) KEY POINTS 
-------------- 
 
-- In mid-October, Qatar witnessed the opening of the control 
room for an 18-billion dollar gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant 
called the Pearl and saw a Qatar Airways A340-600 commercial 
flight powered for the first time by GTL kerosene. 
 
-- Coinciding with these achievements, the Qatar Science and 
Technology Park signed agreements with a handful of entities, 
including Shell and the Qatar campus of Texas A&M University, 
to enhance and develop GTL fuel production. 
 
-- According to Qatar's Minister of Energy, Qatar hopes to 
become the world's largest producer of GTL kerosene by 2012. 
 
-------------- 
(SBU) COMMENTS 
-------------- 
 
-- Qatar's GTL accomplishments to date and future plans 
underscore the potential here for collaborative and 
successful research aimed at developing alternative fuels and 
technologies. 
 
-- The combination of outstanding educational institutions 
and high-powered companies brought together under the 
umbrella of the Qatar Science and Technology Park 
demonstrates the desirability of establishing in Qatar 
additional U.S. partnerships consistent with the President's 
outreach to the Muslim world (Refs A & B). 
 
End Key Points and Comments. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Simon Buerk, communications manager for Shell 
Service Company in Qatar, told P/E Chief Rice October 20 that 
the revenue from the Pearl project, once it is fully 
operational, will generate a profit in the early stages that 
Shell will split with Qatar Petroleum (QP). 
 
¶2. (SBU) According to Buerk, the Pearl GTL facility will 
produce kerosene, GTL-based oil, diesel and sulfur for sale 
in Qatar and abroad.  Asked about long-term contracts, the 
communications manager said Shell would seek to enter into 
them "product by product," but he declined to estimate what 
contracts might be on the horizon. 
 
¶3. (U) Shell and local officials have touted the Pearl 
project in press reports as "positioning Qatar as the GTL 
capital of the world."  The facility, when fully on-line in 
2012, is expected to produce 140,000 barrels per day of clean 
liquid transport fuel and 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent 
per day of natural gas liquids and ethane. 
 
¶4. (U) The central control room for the facility that was 
inaugurated October 13 by Energy Minister and Deputy Prime 
Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah contains four large 
banks of high-powered computers hosting 179 servers.  Every 
part of the plant is linked to the control room by 5,850 
kilometers of underground cable. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Shell, according to Buerk, projects that the overall 
Pearl project will open in late 2010.  Deputy Prime Minister 
Al-Attiyah told the press that project revenues should reach 
close to 100 billion USD over the expected 25-year lifetime 
of the project.  He added that the construction of the Pearl 
has created 48,000 jobs on the construction site alone and 
that by 2012 Qatar hopes to become the world's largest 
producer of GTL kerosene. 
 
----------------------------------- 
QATAR AIRWAYS FLIGHT POWERED BY GTL 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The October 12 flight of the Qatar Airways A340-600 
commercial jet, flown by Qatari pilots, flew from Doha 
International Airport to London Gatwick with a delegation of 
dignitaries on board, according to press reports.  Powered by 
Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines fueled by a 50-50 mixture of 
synthetic GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene 
produced by Shell, the unprecedented flight coincided with 
two agreements in the fields of science and technology signed 
October 13 by the Qatar Science and Technology Park 
(affiliated with the Qatar Foundation), the University of 
Texas A&M-Qatar, the University of Sheffield, Shell, 
 
DOHA 00000639  002 OF 002 
 
 
Rolls-Royce, and the German Center for Space Science. 
 
¶7. (U) According to a press release from the Science and 
Technology Park, the first agreement aims to evaluate and 
assess the physical properties of GTL fuel for aircraft.  The 
second agreement seeks to identify the characteristics that 
optimize GTL fuel combustion. 
 
LeBaron