Subscribe
- Home
- About Us
- Newsletter
- Americas
- EMEA
- Asia
- Market Signals
- Companies
- News
Production at Shell's Pearl GTL plant in Qatar halted after an attack on 18 March damaged one of its two trains
Qatar shipped more than 1.70 million tonnes of base oils to the US, Europe and Asia in 2025, with no comparable replacement supply available
Cargoes that loaded before end-February would provide a short-term buffer, with no replenishment shipments in March
Global supply of gas-to-liquids (GTL) base oils tightened after production at the Pearl GTL facility in Qatar halted following an attack on 18 March.
One of the facility’s two trains was damaged in the attack, prompting a full shutdown of the plant, which includes a 30,000 barrels/day GTL base oils unit, Shell said in a statement.
The plant had already been running at reduced rates before the attack, with exports constrained by the near-complete halt of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since late February.
Some base oils cargoes that loaded before end-February were set to reach outlets such as the US and Asia in the coming weeks, but no replenishment cargoes loaded in March.
The full shutdown extended the supply gap beyond the earlier export disruption caused by the Hormuz blockade.
Finding alternative supplies would be challenging. No other GTL plant operates at a comparable scale, and the volumes involved far exceed any surplus volumes from other refiners.
Base oils shipments from Qatar to the US, Europe and Asia rose to more than 1.70 million tonnes in 2025, climbing from more than 1.50 million tonnes in 2024 to the highest in at least six years, Census Bureau, Enterprise Singapore, Eurostat and other government data showed.
The volume far exceeded flows from the region’s other Group III producers in the UAE and Bahrain.
US base oils imports from Qatar accounted for more than 28% of total premium-grade inflows in January. Asia’s imports of more than 110,000 tonnes from Qatar that month were the highest in ten months.
Market Repercussions
The shutdown removed supply with no immediate replacement.
Group III volumes from other Middle East producers faced the same Hormuz shipping constraints, while alternative sources in Asia and Europe operated under term commitments with limited spot availability.
Stocks built up in the first quarter were likely to cushion near-term availability even as the onset of the peak demand season added to consumption.
The shortfall pointed to growing pressure on blenders to substitute Group II and Group II+ base oils for Group III in lubricant formulations.
