On October 12, the first commercial flight powered by fuel from natural gas took place. From London’s Gatwick airport, it took the Qatar Airways Airbus A340-600 some six hours flying time before landing at Doha International Airport. Developed by Shell, the company building the world’s largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar in conjunction with Qatar Petroleum, the fuel used to power the jet engines was a mix blend of GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel, known as GTL Jet Fuel. The flight is a promising sign for the airline given that Qatar, which holds the third largest reserves of gas in the world, is set to become the world leader in GTL kerosene if production begins on schedule in 2012. Besides the commercial advantages of using the GTL blend, the fuel also emits less sulfur dioxide than its conventional cousin making it more eco-friendly. Many analysts however doubt that
