Shale Glut Becomes $2 Diesel Using Gas-to-Liquids Plants - Bloomberg

Shale Glut Becomes $2 Diesel Using Gas-to-Liquids Plants - Bloomberg

A Chesapeake Energy Corp.-backed company and Oxford Catalysts Group Plc are planning U.S. factories to make diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from gas, which fell to a decade-low price this year. Their goal is to make motor fuels more cheaply and easily than oil-based products produced at giant refineries, and all within two years.
U.S. gasoline prices have jumped more than 125 percent since the end of 2008 as crude doubled to more than $100 a barrel. At the same time hydraulic fracturing processes, or fracking, helped gas producers unlock once inaccessible reserves in shale rock. That’s boosted output and driven down prices, sparking interest in using the surplus energy to fill fuel tanks.
While U.S. natural gas prices are currently about $3.50 per million British thermal units, the futures curve shows prices rising to more than $6 per mmBtu during the next 10 years. Every $1 increase in the price of gas boosts the cost of producing a barrel of diesel by $9, Oxford Catalysts said.
Oxford Catalysts can produce a barrel of premium diesel for $66, or $1.57 a gallon, using gas at $4 per thousand standard cubic feet ($3.89 per mmBtu) at plants with a capacity of just 1,500 barrels a day. The unprofitable technology developer said a plant that size can be built for about $150 million and would last for 20 years.
It costs about $124 a barrel, or $2.95 a gallon, to make premium diesel from oil, the company estimated. The U.S. average price for diesel at the pump is about $4.12 a gallon.