The benefits of GTL technology are becoming very clear. GTL has the potential to convert the trillions of cubic feet of stranded natural gas worldwide into billions of barrels of economic value. Countries that control the gas will realize great value from the investment, jobs and revenue that will result from the development of these resources. Furthermore, the products and fuels from GTL plants can be transported and sold through conventional infrastructure, such as tankers, pipelines, storage facilities and existing retail distribution systems. The process yields the highest quality synthetic hydrocarbons that can be used directly as a fuel in a normal diesel engine, or blended with lower quality crude oil-derived diesel fuel to help meet more stringent engine exhaust standards and increased performance requirements.

While the GTL process can be designed to refine several types of products, our focus will be on diesel as a transportation fuel and naphtha as a chemical feedstock. Ultra-clean diesel has two natural markets: it can be blended with conventional diesel to meet lower sulfur specifications and be used as a cost effective alternative to more costly refining processes. It can also be sold as a specialty product to major cities for use in buses, trucks, taxis etc to alleviate air pollution problems. Many of the world's cities are in need of such an alternative fuel application that functions better than conventional fuels, including compressed natural gas. The ultra-clean naphtha product is ideally suited to ethylene cracking for the manufacture of petrochemicals because of its high paraffin content. Both the diesel and naphtha markets are significant today in absolute terms and expanding at strong rates of growth. The clean diesel product is likely to have the highest demand in the Far East and Europe while the high value naphtha will probably be consumed in the Middle East.