The contract, which will require almost 500,000 design manhours, will further refine the design of the onshore GTL plant in preparation for the implementation phase. JGC will execute the majority of the work at the MW Kellogg office in Greenford, North West London. MW Kellogg is a joint venture company between JGC and Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR).

In October 2003, Shell and Qatar Petroleum announced that they had reached agreement on a Heads of Agreement (HOA) for the GTL project. The project includes the development of a block within Qatar's vast offshore North Field gas field, producing 1.6 billion cubic feet-per-day of gas. In February 2004, Shell announced that they had started appraisal drilling in this block.

Shell plans to invest around $5 billion to develop the offshore gas and an onshore GTL plant that will produce 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of GTL products (primarily naphtha and transport fuels, with a smaller quantity of normal paraffins and lubricant base oils) as well as significant quantities of associated condensate and Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

The project will be developed in two phases with the first phase operational in 2009, producing around 70,000 bpd of GTL products. The second phase will be completed less than two years later.