Qatar Airways plans to become the first airline in the world to fuel its aircraft with natural gas, the company’s chief executive said.

Akbar Al Baker said the state-owned airline was talking to oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc and engine manufacturers about using a form of diesel made from natural gas, known as GTL, or Gas-to-Liquids fuel, in its planes.
“We are talking to Shell and as soon as the engine manufacturers have certified their engines to be used with GTL, Qatar Airways will be the first airline to fuel its airplanes with GTL,” Al Baker said.
“I was told they would get certification by the end of the year,” he added.
Qatar has the world’s third-largest gas reserves and is keen to develop the use of GTL, especially after Exxon Mobil Corp’s decision to ditch a multi-billion dollar GTL project in Qatar because of rising costs.
The Exxon decision led some to question whether the technology was economically viable.
Shell has the only fully operational commercial-scale natural gas-to-liquids plant in the world, at Bintulu, Malaysia and is planning a much larger GTL plant in Qatar.
Traditional jet fuel is refined from crude and has similar properties to motor diesel.