Posted on 05/28/2014 5:29:44 AM PDT by thackney
Start with exotic Nazi technology, take a detour with South African apartheidists, and add a bit role for Iranian imams. What you have is—what else? —one of the most improbable and important American business stories of the past decade.
It's the tale of a company called Sasol, the former South African state oil company, which is embarking on what could be the single-largest foreign investment project in U.S. history.
Sasol is building a 3,034-acre energy complex near a bayou in Lake Charles, La. Tapping into cheap, fracked natural gas as well as the pipeline and shipping infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, Sasol plans to spend as much as $21 billion there.
It is expensive, elaborate and dirty work. Sasol plans to reduce, or "crack," the gas into ethylene, a raw chemical used in plastics, paints and food packaging. It also plans to convert the gas into high-quality diesel and other fuels, using a process once advanced by Nazi scientists to power Panzer tanks. The state of Louisiana is even kicking in $2 billion of incentives to make it happen.
Start with exotic Nazi technology, take a detour with South African apartheidists, and add a bit role for Iranian imams. What you have is—what else? —one of the most improbable and important American business stories of the past decade.
It's the tale of a company called Sasol, SOL.JO +0.23% the former South African state oil company, which is embarking on what could be the single-largest foreign investment project in U.S. history.
Sasol is building a 3,034-acre energy complex near a bayou in Lake Charles, La. Tapping into cheap, fracked natural gas as well as the pipeline and shipping infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, Sasol plans to spend as much as $21 billion there.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
convert the gas into high-quality diesel and other fuels
some 66 industrial projects—worth some $90 billion—will be breaking ground over the next five years in Louisiana
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Wow. It is a good time to be a chemical engineer
bttt
Seems to me that our government is ok with foreign companies doing this - but not American companies.
Much of the shale boom is done by small independent US based companies.
The foreign companies just haven’t met our tort bar yet.
For those who want to see a video showing how horizontal drilling and fracking is done, Northern Gas and Oil has a great one. It’s 6 minutes.
It includes a visual piece on how fresh water aquifers are protected from contamination.
http://www.northernoil.com/drilling-video
Cool vid, thanks
Take that Ed Begly Jr. Good to see Louisiana moving up the value chain.
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