Oil Companies Investing in Clean Diesel From Gas in Qatar
il companies are set to spend billions of dollars on to make cleaner diesel fuel in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The rising price of oil has made a technology that converts natural gas into clean-burning diesel more attractive, the Times reported.
The diesel is far cleaner than that commonly used in passenger cars in Europe and heavy trucks in the United States, the paper said.
ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum are working on a venture to produce cleaner diesel from natural gas that is expected to require $7 billion over the next several years. It would be the single largest investment in Exxon Mobil's history, the paper said.
By 2015, overall production of the fuel could reach more than one million barrels a day, according to an estimate by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the Times said.
Qatar has attracted the largest projects because of its large natural gas reserves and an aggressive investment strategy with American and European energy companies, the paper reported.
