The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[zebra4o1]

Fascinating article on GTL. Don't agree at all that GTL is a dead end. We are going to need more and more of these plants converting various forms of hydrocarbons to liquid fuels. There are various coal to liquids projects in the works in Australia, including coal to liquids using underground coal gassification - which can be thought of as a kind of GTL.

I don't understand their comment that the gas is free. Isn't there supposed to be a natural gas shortage in Saudi Arabia? Seems like there would be a local market for that gas. Alternatively they could save if for export as LNG.

Was horrified to read that the LNG process burns 15% of the gas feedstock. Did not realize it was that high. And GTL is much worse!

Love it how they state that 'finding enough skilled workers was tough in Qatar's tight labor market' and then in the next paragraph they say 'few countries enjoy the same combination of cheap labor ...'.

Considering ponying up for a subscription to Syngas Refiner, an industry journal on GTL by those Zeus guys.
http://www.zeuslibrary.com/syngas/
Would probably be a better investment than Grant's Interest Rate Observer that I waste money on every year.

Speaking of Jim Grant, he was recommending shorting Greek bonds about 4 years ago. Can't understand why he is not reminding people of this call. Maybe the counter parties blew up in the credit crunch? This was your typical Jim Grant recommendation: way to early, and something almost impossible to do as a retail investor.