Shell has opened a gas-to-liquid (GTL) base in Dubai, which completes the oil major’s full global reach and is intended to serve customers in the Middle East, Egypt, India, Pakistan and South Africa
Located in Jebel Ali, the new facility is Shell’s fourth GTL base oil storage hub worldwide. It joins its existing hubs found in Houston in the US, Hamburg in Germany and Hong Kong.
Dennis Cheong, vice-president of supply chain at Shell, said, “Shell is the only company with a dependable supply of GTL bas oil. This new hub accomplishes the full integration of our transportation and storage of GTL base oil globally.”
The GTL base oil is made in the region at Qatar’s Pearl GTL plant, which is the result of a partnership between Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The first delivery of GTL base oil to the Dubai-based hub was made in late December 2014.
According to Shell, the strategic location of the new facility will allow product to arrive from Qatar and be efficiently distributed to Shell’s network of lubricant blending plants in the region.
Speaking at the GTL hub opening, Mounir Bouaziz, vice-president MENA and country chair for Dubai and Northern Emirates at Shell, stated, “The decision to create a hub in the UAE demonstrates Shell’s ongoing commitment to the region, and illustrates the growing demand for premium lubricants.”
Sheikh ThaniAl Thani, deputy general manager for Qatar Shell, commented, “GTL products represent a pioneering innovation to increase the supply of highly-demanded liquid hydrocarbons. They offer significant advantages in many applications as they are virtually sulphur free, colourless and odourless.
“These attributes of GTL-based products make them very attractive to help meet the growing requirements of consumers.”
