DOHA: Shell will continue to play a relevant role in Asia as an energy source for the region as Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, still remains a major market for the group.
“Over the next 24 months, we’re really stepping up our efforts in Malaysia as more and more discoveries are being made.
“We operate about 50 per cent of Malaysia’s gas production and the contry still has expansion plans for its explorations.
“In the next two years, I think together we can lay the foundation so that we can continue our role in Malaysia,” highlighted Maarten Wetselaar, executive vice president for Integrated Gas for Shell Upstream International in a conference call to the media.
When asked if Shell was planning to venture further into the Southeast Asian region due to its rich gas resources, Wetselaar affirmed that the group already had a substantial portfolio with Brunei and Malaysia, having plans to continue to explore very heavily for new gas resources in the area.
“We also are keen to diversify our markets. As you know, in the Philippines, we are looking at the opportunity to establish a regasification terminal. We have units already in India, and we’re looking at other countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam,” he said.
In the midst of turning gas into useful products such as gas to liquids (GTL), Shell is making headwinds in the arena thanks to its expertise in being an integrated downstream and upstream company.
Pearl GTL is one fine example of that progress, a culmination of decades of research, engineering, constructing, commissioning, start up and now production.
Having completed the world’s first commercial GTL plant in Bintulu, Sarawak back in 1993, Shell is affirming its position as the market leader in the GTL business with its Pearl GTL plant here in Qatar.
With an official full ramp up in the last quarter of 2012 (4Q12) with approximate investments valued between US$18 billion to US$19 billion, Qatar Shell Companies managing director and chairman Wael Sawan during a separate briefing highlighted that the Pearl GTL was an affirmation of the group’s belief in the GTL process.
“GTLs is a massive market that we’re going into. You feed into a very accepting market, and that’s one of the biggest attractions of GTL,” Sawan told a media briefing here. Several key products that can be created using this GTL process, he noted, was lubricants, GTL jet fuel, GTL gasoline, GTL naphtha and GTL base oil.
Among key benefits of using GTL products are reduced carbon emissions, direct applicability in existing fleets, less costs and also a reduction in noise. GTL products are also easier to transport, store and use compared with other gas-based fuels.
To note, the proprietary Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis (SMDS) process is at the heart of the two-train Pearl GTL plant.
Developed over more than three decades, the process has been proven on a commercial scale at the 14,700-barrel-per-day Bintulu GTL plant in Malaysia. The ‘Bintulu experience’ helped improve the chemical catalysts integral to the SMDS process.
“These improvements will reduce unit capital expenditure, allow faster processing and should enable Shell to produce greater volumes of fuel and other products at Pearl,” highlighted Sawan.