DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones) – Qatar Airways Tuesday said it has completed the world's first commercial passenger flight powered by fuel made from natural gas, marking an important step for the aviation industry's efforts to reduce its dependency on oil-based fuel.

The flight from London Gatwick to Doha Monday was operated with an Airbus A340-600 aircraft using a mixture of synthetic gas to liquids kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel, the airline said in an e-mailed statement.

The gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar is set to become the world's leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

"Qatar's position as the GTL capital of the world has been further enhanced with today's achievement," Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Qatar's deputy prime minister and minister of energy and industry said in the statement.

"Commercial aviation is one of the exciting new markets that this opens up, helping us maximize the value from our natural resources," he said.