19-09-02 Gas, and most specifically Gas-to-Liquids, has enormous potential to deliver new markets and new customers to Middle East producers, according to a senior Shell official.
Jeroen van der Veer, president of Royal Dutch Petroleum and vice-chairman of the committee of managing directors of Shell of Companies, who addressed a gathering of local and international media in Dubai, said that potential new gas markets in Europe and Asia were opening up to LNG, natural gas and gas-to-liquids technologies, and major new cross-border gas pipeline infrastructures are being actively considered.

Gas-to-Liquids is a technology uniquely suited to the demands of the post-Kyoto world and to the changing expectations of customers and governments, he said, adding that it is a huge unlimited market.
"To fully realise the potential of the Middle East's gas reserves, we need more than a 'business as usual' approach. The global energy markets of tomorrow will be very different to those of the l990s. We believe that the global trend towards cleaner fuels and advances in technology present a major opportunity for the Middle East to realise its global gas potential. Innovation, investment and partnership between the energy industry and governments now hold the key to future success," he said.

"Increasingly, the name of the game is gas, and new technology may allow Shell to take part in gas and Gas-to-Liquids developments in Qatar and Iran. Both countries have enormous potential and I would particularly like to see developments in these two countries move forward as rapidly as possible," he added.
He said apart from Egypt, Shell has not had a major upstream presence in North Africa in recent years, but it is now looking for future growth opportunities with the governments of Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, while "We see an exciting future for both oil and gas developments in the Emirates. These may be closely tied to developments elsewhere in the Gulf."

Speaking about the natural gas initiative in Saudi Arabia, he said for Shell this was a stepping-stone to many further developments and being a "complex project it takes time to finalise".
He dismissed earlier reports that the natural gas initiative is dead. "This is not correct," he said, adding that Shell is still negotiating with the Saudi government. “Developments in Kuwait have been slow to mature, but there are many areas of progress and Shell is actively working with the government,” he said.