"Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s largest oil company, said a $19 billion investment in Qatar may prove that abundant natural gas coaxed from shale rocks across the U.S. could be converted into diesel and jet fuel.

Shell, which is completing the world’s largest gas-to- liquids plant in Qatar, could use the technology on a smaller scale in the U.S. if capital costs can be reduced, Marvin Odum, head of Shell in the Americas, said in an interview in London. The technology uses catalysts to turn natural gas into jet fuel, diesel and other liquids.  ...

U.S. gas producers are examining different ways to benefit from the arbitrage between oil and gas prices. In the nearer term, compressed and liquefied gas is likely to play a greater role as a transportation fuel, Odum said. Exports of liquefied natural gas by ship are possible from North America, more likely from Canada than the U.S., where there are political obstacles to exports, he said.  ..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/shell-s-u-s-shale-gas-may-...

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