The Arabian Gulf emirate is a geographic midget but a gas giant. It has one of world’s largest known gas fields, the North Field, and is believed to have the world’s third-largest known gas reserves, behind Russia and Iran and well ahead of Australia.

Like Australia, Qatar has a lot of gas but is a long way from major markets and pipeline networks. It is a leader in liquefied natural gas but is now looking at other opportunities to monetise its huge methane resources.

The GTL process produces a sulphur-free, particulate-free diesel that can be shipped in normal tankers, unloaded at ordinary ports and run in standard diesel engines.

Oryx GTL is a joint venture between state-owned Qatar Petroleum (51%) and GTL joint venture Sasol Chevron (49%).

The Oryx plant has a 34,000 barrel per day processing capacity (24,000bpd of diesel, 9000bpd of naphtha and 1000bpd of liquefied petroleum gas) and the partners are already laying out expansion plans to build that to 100,000bpd.

Qatar Petroleum is also working with ExxonMobil on another GTL project that is expected to require more than $7 billion of investment over the next several years. The New York Times said this project, which will have a 154,000bpd capacity, would be the largest single investment in ExxonMobil's history.

ExxonMobil told the New York Times earlier this year that it was already drilling appraisal wells for the project and planned to start production by 2011.

In addition, Royal Dutch Shell is forming a JV with Qatar Petroleum to produce 140,000bpd of GTL in the next three years from its Pearl project.

GTL plants require massive investment and are energy-hungry to run, but Sasol maintains that high oil prices and environmental concerns make the fuel competitive. The company has said that Oryx GTL will make other companies and gas-rich countries think more seriously about the merits of making diesel from gas.

Sasol Chevron is planning another GTL plant in Nigeria with and is considering other possible facilities in Australia and Iran.