A measure of the vastness of Shell’s new Pearl GTL chemicals plant in the Qatari desert is that it contains enough steel to build 40 Eiffel Towers. That figure – one of series of mega-stats gleefully thrown out by Andy Brown, managing director of Pearl GTL – is also a sign of the size of the gamble Shell and its government partner are taking on the potential of the myriad chemical products derived from the country’s plentiful natural gas.
Conceived in 2006 at a time when oil prices were about two-thirds of today’s $100 or so, the next few years will determine whether Pearl was a far-sighted and lucrative masterstroke or a wrong turn in an era when demand for raw gas in leading emerging economies is so brisk that it is pointless and expensive to fiddle around with it.
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