S6 Advertiser retains sole responsibility for contentConsider it a case of unintended
consequences. In the 1990s,
governments across Europe
were looking at easy ways
to reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions to meet their Kyoto
Protocol targets. One solution
was to convert their country’s
fl eets of cars and trucks from
gasoline to diesel fuel. In so
doing they could reduce carbon
dioxide (CO 2 ) by 15% for every
mile driven. Nobody thought
about the particulate and
nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) pollution
this would cause in the central
cities. Diesel engines discharge
22 times more fi ne particulates
than gasoline engines and
these can cause pulmonary
problems particularly in youngchildren. Asthma attacks are
now the number one cause of
emergency room admissions
for children in London.
Halfway across the globe a
solution to this problem was
taking shape, though no one
knew it at the time. Scientists
at the Qatar Science and
Technology Park (QSTP), part
of Qatar Foundation, began
looking at ways to turn natural
gas into higher value products,
such as clean diesel fuel and
lubricants.
As one of the world’s leading
producers of natural gas and
exporters of liquifi ed natural
gas (LNG), Qatar has attracted
many of the industry’s key
players. Researchers in theprivate sector and academia
have also come to Qatar,
working to make the process
of extracting and harvesting
natural gas more e cient
and lessen impacts on the
environment.
The process of investing in
further research and natural
gas production is tied to the
economic cycle and the price of
oil and gas.
“The key to investing in GTL
[ gas-to-liquid ] technology
is to build the plant when the
price of oil is going up,” says
Nimir Elbashir, author of Natural
Gas Processing from Midstream
to Downstream (Wiley, 2019)
and director of Texas A&M’s
Engineering ExperimentStation’s Gas & Fuels Research
Center based in Qatar and
Texas. “Qatar, Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan and Nigeria are
geographically perfect for
GTL production because the
feedstock is right there and
e¡ ectively free.”
Before LNG was fi rst
exported from Qatar in 1996,
an LNG terminal had to be built
that would have cost, in today’s
money, over US$10 billion. An
LNG carrier costs at least $400
million, and it has to dock at a
port that is equipped to take the
liquifi ed gas. An LNG import
terminal costs about $500
million to construct. All of the
capital-intense parts of the
puzzle have to be in place beforeWORKI NG TOWARDS
CLEANER FUEL
Being one of the world’s leading producers of natural gas and exporters of liquified natural gas, Qatar is
looking at ways to turn natural gas into higher value products, such as clean diesel fuel and lubricants. The
peninsular country is also investing in efforts to make the process of extracting and harvesting natural gas
more efficient with less impacts on the environment.An LNG carrier costs at least
$400 million, and it has to dock
at a port that is equipped to
take liquefi ed gas.Untitled-1351 1 28/10/2019 18:03