The conversion of natural gas into synthetic fuel is an active area of development.Today,many large and independent oil companies as well as engineering contractors are involved in either research,pilot plants,or demonstration units with the objective of reducing capital and operating cost of this technology. Beside the technology,the economic factor of the GTL process remains the major element in the application of this process.The major factors affecting the economics of the GTL process is the gas price and the capital cost.The GTL process could be an attractive way to monetize stranded gas reserves where the application of pipeline or LNG Technology is not techno-economically feasible,because the gas is either very far from the market and/or the gas reserve can not support a world scale LNG plant. Fuel produced from the GTL process is practically sulfur and aromatics free,accordingly,exhaust emission from the GTL products is not an area of concern.As an example, exhaust emission pollutants from GTL diesel oil is much below those required by most stringent present and planned (future)specifications.However,carbon release cycle(from GTL production to consumption)is an active area of research and studies. The availability of natural gas at reasonable price, present crude oil price and the environmental benefits of using fuel products derived from natural gas has led to the realization of many commercial scale GTL units at different parts of the world particularly in Qatar which is targeting to be the centre of the GTL projects.These worldwide projects are at different stages of implementation. In this paper,an attempt was made to present the above consideration in more details for the GTL process as a route for gas monetization including a broad brush economic comparison with LNG production as an alternative competing route.
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