Alex Anderson, group media manager for Sasol, said it is too soon to project how much of the GTL output would be dedicated to base oil for lubricants, but some portion of it would be. As with mega projects of this nature, a final investment decision will follow the front-end engineering and design (FEED) process. The company said that final decision isn’t expected until 2014.

Sasol converts natural gas to diesel fuel using a variation of the Fischer-Tropsch technology developed by German scientists in the 1920s, according to Anderson. We have a specially designed reactor that uses a low temperature process. Its quite a new technology that is not very well known around the world.

In addition to the GTL plant, Sasol plans to construct a $7 billion ethane cracker for downstream derivatives that is scheduled to come online in 2017. The ethane cracker will produce 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene, one of the chemical industry’s key buildings blocks for alcohol- and plastics-based products, including solvents, surfactants and polymers.

Once fully operational, the integrated GTL plant, the first of its kind in the United States, and the ethane cracker will create a combined minimum of 1,200 permanent positions with an average annual salary of $88,000, according to the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) agency. Hiring is expected to begin in 2014, the state said.

Sasol is proud to be driving forward with the next phase of the strategic mega-projects, said Sasol CEO David Constable at a media conference earlier this month with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Through our innovative energy and chemicals technologies, we will provide the United States with world-class, cleaner-burning fuel, contribute to the countrys energy security, boost downstream manufacturing capacity, and diversify the utilization of domestic gas resources, Constable said.

Jindal noted the project will be the largest single manufacturing investment in the history of Louisiana and it represents one of the largest foreign direct investment manufacturing projects in the history of the United States.

To secure the project, Louisiana offered Sasol an incentive package that includes a performance-based grant of $115 million for land acquisition and infrastructure costs associated with the facility, according to LED. The state will also invest $20 million for a new training facility and associated equipment focused on industrial technology at SOWELA Technical Community College in Lake Charles.

Including direct and indirect effects, the Sasol project will produce a total economic impact over the next 20 years of $46.2 billion, according to an economic impact study commissioned by LED and completed by the LSU Division of Economic Development. The project is also expected to create roughly 7,000 construction jobs.

Once fully operational, the Port Charles plant will be similar in scale to Sasols Secunda complex in South Africa, which is currently the worlds largest producer of fuels and chemicals from coal and gas, with an output of around 7.5 million tons a year, the company said.

The Port Charles plant will be second in size only to Shells Pearl GTL project, which is capable of producing 140,000 b/d of GTL products. Pearls total base oil capacity is 28,000 b/d. The plant, which opened in 2011, cost approximately $19 billion.

Sasols Houston-based subsidiary, Sasol North America Inc., claims to support more than 550 existing direct and contract jobs at its Westlake Chemical Complex, where Sasol is completing a $175 million capital investment to build the world’s first ethylene tetramerization unit.

Sasol is an international integrated energy and chemicals company with more than 34,000 people working in 38 countries.