Royal Dutch Shell is on track to complete the construction of the Pearl, the world's largest gas to liquids (GTL) plant, by the end of this year and full capacity is expected by early 2012, a company executive said.

The $18-$19 billion project has a capacity to produce 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of GTL products which include diesel, kerosene, naphtha and lubricant oils.

"We expect the full capacity to be reached by the first part of 2012," said Krey Stirland, commercial manager at Qatar Shell, on the sidelines of an industry event in Doha.

Condensates and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is expected to be produced by the first quarter of next year, while the remaining GTL products will be produced by the second quarter of 2011, he added.

Pearl, a joint development by Qatar Petroleum and Shell, will process about three billion barrels-of-oil-equivalent over its lifetime from the huge North Field in the Gulf. The plant is located at Qatar's industrial city of Ras Laffan. - Reuters