Shell's Qatar GTL plant to restart operations by mid-April – official

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: 0LN9.L - news) plans to restart operations at its Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL (BSE: GLBTS6.BO - news) ) plant in Qatar in April after maintenance last month and expects to reach full production capacity by June, a Qatar Petroleum (QP) official said.

"We are aiming for a restart by mid-April and to get back to full capacity again by the end of June," the QP official told Reuters, declining to be named because the matter is not public.

Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) said in December the Qatar's Pearl GTL plant in Ras Laffan - one of the world's largest - was operating at a reduced rate of production due to unforeseen maintenance, and in February that the plant was being shut down and could take a couple of months to bring back..

A Shell spokesman in Qatar did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Tom Finn; Editing by Rania El Gamal)