Shell to Take Ownership of the Engineering and Instrumentation Data Management at its Pearl Gas to Liquids Plant in Qatar

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The engineering mega-project Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) plant, an $18 billion-$19 billion development by Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell, reaches a new milestone this month, as Shell gets ready to manage the handover of instrumentation data. The engineering instrumentation database comprises about 150,000 loops, 350,000 instruments and 90,000 data sheets.

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The central engineering solution, built on Intergraph's SmartPlant® Instrumentation and hosted by Intergraph, helped enforce project standards and best practices among multiple project contractors. SmartPlant Instrumentation provides a single source of plant instrumentation data and includes interfaces with most complementary solutions, such as most automation vendors, for easy access and data consistency, delivering increased safety, quality, efficiency and productivity.

Under the project management contract, approximately 25 contractors from France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States were engaged in the design of the plant, each of them providing engineering input during the Front End Engineering and Design phase of the project. Overall, the project has collected some 15 million items of data and nearly 500,000 documents and ensured their proper delivery into the company's GAME (Global Asset Management Excellence) program.

During the design and construction phase, the environment, which operates via Citrix, served approximately 200 users who connect via the Internet and have access to the instrumentation database 24/7. Since the inception of the project, engineering software solution company Intergraph has been responsible to design, implement and operate the hosted SmartPlant Instrumentation service for the duration of the design phase and now the time has come to hand it over to Shell.

Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine president, said: "Shell is one of the leading oil and gas companies in the world and is well-respected in the industries it serves. Its adoption of SmartPlant Instrumentation for one of its largest projects, in addition to the expanded use of Intergraph solutions, underscores the value these solutions bring to our customers and their clients."

Pearl GTL, based in Ras Laffan, Qatar, is the world's largest gas to liquids plant and was the largest construction site ever in the oil and gas industry during construction phase. The first commercial shipment from the Pearl GTL was achieved on June 13, 2011. The plant converts natural gas into high quality fuels and liquid products.

When operating at full capacity in mid-2012, Pearl GTL will convert 1.6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas into 140 thousand barrels per day of GTL products (gasoil, kerosene, base oils Naphtha and Normal Paraffins) and 120,000 barrels of natural gas liquids and ethane. The plant will process approximately 3 billion barrels of oil-equivalent over its lifetime from the North field, which stretches from Qatar's coast out into the Gulf and contains more than 900 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The ARC Advisory Group, a leading industry analyst firm, ranked Intergraph the No. 1 overall engineering design 3D software and process engineering tools (PET) provider worldwide according to its "PET Worldwide Outlook Market Analysis and Forecast through 2015."

About Shell
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemicals companies with around 93,000 employees in more than 90 countries and territories. Its operating subsidiaries are divided into the following divisions: Exploration & Production, Oil products, Chemicals and Gas & Power.

The Pearl GTL plant has sold its first commercial shipment of GTL Gasoil, marking the start of production. At the peak of construction more than 52,000 people worked on Pearl GTL. Around 2 million tons of equipment and materials were imported to the site and workers installed enough steel and pipes to make 2 1/2 Eiffel Towers every month. Pearl GTL will add almost 8 percent to Shell's production worldwide – making it the company's main engine for growth for 2012. It is expected to reach full production this year. For more information, visit www.shell.com.

About Intergraph
Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraph's industry-specific software to organize vast amounts of data to make processes and infrastructure better, safer and smarter. The company's software and services empower customers to build and operate more efficient plants and ships, create intelligent maps and protect critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world.

Intergraph Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) provides enterprise engineering software for the design, construction, operation and data management of plants, ships and offshore facilities.

Intergraph is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon AB. For more information, visit www.intergraph.com and www.hexagon.com.

© 2012 Intergraph Corp. All rights reserved. Intergraph, the Intergraph logo, SmartPlant and SmartMarine are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Intergraph