RAS LAFFAN, Qatar, Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) - Qatar on Thursday launched a mega gas-to-liquids (GTL) project in partnership with Royal Dutch/Shell worth at least 10 billion dollars.

The foundation stone for a plant at Ras Laffan Industrial City, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital Doha, was laid by Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Britain's Prince Charles, who arrived in Qatar from Kuwait on the second leg of a Gulf tour.

"A total of 10 billion dollars of contracts have already been awarded for the project, including all major engineering, procurement and construction," which began in the third quarter of 2006, said a joint statement by state-run Qatar Petroleum and Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell.

The launch came two days after Qatar Petroleum and US energy major ExxonMobil Corp announced they had shelved plans for a multi-billion-dollar gas-to-liquids project in the Gulf state.

The new project, dubbed Pearl GTL, will be developed under a development and production sharing agreement and covers offshore and onshore project development and operation, with Shell providing 100 percent of funding, the statement said.

"Upstream 1.6 billion cubic feet of wellhead gas will be produced, transported and processed per day to produce 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane," the statement said.

"Downstream dry gas will be used as feedstock to produce 140,000 barrels per day of clean, high quality GTL fuels and products.

The plant "is expected to produce some three billion barrels of oil equivalent wellhead gas over the period of the development and production sharing agreement," it added.

The first phase of the project is due to be completed in 2010, according to a pamphlet on the venture.

The statement said Pearl GTL was "not only the world's largest integrated GTL project, but also the largest energy project" in Qatar, which has the world's third largest gas reserves and is pushing to become the biggest LNG exporter.

The Gulf state's giant North Field has proven reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet (25 trillion cubic metres) of natural gas, amounting to more than 15 percent of global proven gas reserves.

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