DOHA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell plans amajor maintenance shutdown at its Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL)plant in Qatar around March next year, a company executive saidon Sunday.
A turnaround maintenance in March will halt output from onefacility, Train 2, and that could take around one or two monthsto complete, Rob Sherwin, Deputy Country Chairman for ShellQatar said.
"Pearl GTL is two identical, parallel trains, we had Train 1down for maintenance earlier this year. That will happen againin 2016 for Train 2, it will be the same timing, it will beMarch-time," he told Reuters in Doha on the sidelines of anenergy conference.
"The whole train will come down. We'll be down to one trainproducing for the duration of the turnaround. This year'smaintenance took somewhere between one and two months, so it's adecent chunk of time."
Pearl GTL comprises two identical GTL 'trains', with a totalcapacity of 140,000 barrels per day of GTL products plus 120,000barrels per day of natural gas liquids and ethane, according toShell's website.
Fed by the world's biggest non-associated gas field, Pearl,the world's largest GTL plant strips methane from wellhead gasand combines it with oxygen to produce diesel, natural gasliquids and ethane. (Reporting by Tom Finn; Writing by Rania El Gamal. Editing byJane Merriman)