Shell’s U.S. Shale Gas May Be Refined Into Diesel, Jet Fuel

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, 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.