Pearl GTL to Reach Full Capacity Within Days

Pearl GTL is set to reach full production within days after completing maintenance work on its two main production lines, the company's technology manager said on Monday.

"It is more a matter of days than weeks. It is difficult to say because you can always have a bit of a setback but now we're almost through," Rob Overtoom of Qatar Shell GTL Ltd said on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi, Reuters reported.

Without disclosing the capacity, he said that output was already high, the newswire further added.

Pearl, the world's largest GTL plant, strips methane from the world's biggest non-associated gas field and combines it with oxygen to produce diesel, natural gas liquids and ethane.

Shell has said the project would generate $4 billion of free cash flow a year once running at full production in a market with crude oil, the main determinant of the price of diesel, at $70 a barrel.