Pearl GTL, the world’s largest gas-to-liquids project at Ras Laffan in Qatar, has been 50 per cent completed, a senior Shell official said.

“We are on schedule for start-up by 2010 end,” Shell country chairman Andrew Brown was quoted as saying by a Gulf Times report.

Pearl GTL is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell.

The project is Shell’s single largest equity investment anywhere in the world and will produce about 140,000 bpd of GTL products as well as 120,000 bpd of condensate, LPG and ethane from two trains.

Brown said some 35,000 people are now working at the project site, which spreads over 1.5 sq km, at Ras Laffan.

“Large quantities of material have already reached the site. The project has made extremely good progress. It is going on very well and I am very much delighted about our achievements,” Brown said.