WORLD'S FIRST COMMERCIAL PASSENGER FLIGHT POWERED BY NATURAL GAS FUEL LANDS IN QATAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 (Bernama) -- A Qatar Airways aircraft on Monday
completed the world's first commercial passenger flight powered by a fuel made
from natural gas.

The historic journey from London Gatwick to Doha took over six hours and was
operated with an Airbus A340-600 aircraft using Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines.

Shell developed and produced the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids
(GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel.

The State of Qatar is set to become the world's leading producer of GTL
kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

"Qatar's position as the GTL capital of the world has been further enhanced
with today's achievement," said Abdulla Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar, in a statement here.

"GTL technology enables us to produce liquid fuels and other products from
natural gas. Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets that this
opens up, helping us maximise the value from our natural resources," he said.

The fuel, as an alternative to conventional oil-based kerosene, will
contribute to diversification of aviation fuel supply.

It also burns with lower sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions than pure
conventional oil-based kerosene, making it attractive for improving local air
quality at busy airports.

The blend of conventional kerosene and GTL kerosene will be known as GTL Jet
Fuel.

The flight was the latest step in over two years of scientific work carried
out by a consortium consisting of Airbus, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar
Science & Technology Park, Rolls-Royce, Shell and WOQOD into the benefits of
using GTL Jet Fuel to power commercial aircraft.

Much of this work is being undertaken at the Qatar Science & Technology Park
in Doha.

A delegation of consortium members and international media was onboard
flight QR076 for the milestone trip.

Data from the GTL flight will be used by scientists in Qatar to further
quantify GTL Jet Fuel use benefits.

"Qatar Airways is proud to be associated with this consortium and to become
the world's first airline to use this new fuel technology on a commercial
passenger flight," said its Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, who was
onboard the flight.

"Once again, Qatar Airways has shown its commitment to the environment and
we expect this alternative fuel to provide benefits, particularly the
improvement of air quality."

The GTL kerosene will be produced in commercial quantities by the Pearl GTL
project, currently under construction by Qatar Petroleum and Shell.

The project is expected to produce around one million tonnes per annum of
GTL kerosene from 2012, enough to power a typical commercial airliner for half a
billion kilometres when used in a 50 per cent blend to make GTL Jet Fuel.

GTL Jet Fuel, with GTL kerosene up to 50 per cent, was fully and
unconditionally approved as safe for use in civil aviation by ASTM International
(originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) last month.

The approval followed two years of separate research and discussion by the
ASTM specification group, a separate consensus body consisting of producers,
equipment manufacturers and consumers of aviation fuel.
-- BERNAMA