Shell has restarted its 140,000 b/d capacity Pearl gas-to-liquids plant (GTL) at Ras Laffan in Qatar after a shutdown to fix a problem with “some or all” of the plant’s 18 gasifiers. The problem became apparent in December, when Shell initially began running the plant at half capacity before closing it completely on 1 February.

Jessica Uhl, Shell’s chief financial officer, told analysts on the firm’s 4 May earnings call that the plant was restarted in March and “should be up to speed by the end of the second quarter.” Her predecessor Simon Henry had said shortly after the plant was fully shut down that “we don’t know yet quite how long it would take” to bring the plant back into operation. (CONTINUED - 696 WORDS)