Tanada wrote:NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Low oil prices and a volatile market are prompting a South African energy and chemical company to drop plans for an $11 billion to $14 billion U.S. plant to convert natural gas to liquid fuels and to pull out of Canadian shale. ....
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From this and the rest of this thread, it seems like GTL for liquid fuels is only borderline economically viable -- its viability is very sensitive to the relative prices of natural gas and crude oil.
However, GTL for specialty hydrocarbons like motor oil seems to be thriving. I think that it is more successful there because (1) one needs much less lubricant than fuel and (2) GTL lube has demonstrably superior performance. This makes a price premium much more tolerable.
I hope that I have gotten the economics straight.