Sasol: Gas-to-liquids plant in La. could cost as much as $21B

South African chemicals and energy company Sasol Ltd. announced today it anticipates spending between $16 billion and $21 billion to build a complex in Louisiana to convert natural gas into diesel, other fuels and chemicals. When, and if, that projection comes to fruition, Gov. Bobby Jindal says it would represent the largest industrial investment in state history. “It also represents one of the largest foreign direct investment manufacturing projects in the history of the entire United States,” says the governor, who joined Sasol officials today to shed additional light on the scope of the project, which has been in development for years. Sasol says it will soon begin initial engineering work on a complex in Westlake that will use domestic natural gas—which is among the cheapest in the world—to make higher-value chemicals and fuels. The company plans to first spend $5 billion to $7 billion on a chemical plant, and later add an $11 billion to $14 billion gas-to-liquids plant. The complex, if built as proposed, will employ 7,000 construction workers during peak construction and 1,200 permanent workers, the company says. Sasol announced in September 2011 that it had selected Louisiana for the project. To secure it, LED is providing a custom incentives package that includes a performance-based grant of $115 million for land acquisition and infrastructure costs associated with the facility, as well as workforce training assistance and other tax incentives. LED has the full details on today’s announcement and the incentive package here.