本世纪初，有六家公司宣布在卡塔尔建设GTL炼油厂。其中这六家公司包括沙索（Sasol），沙索雪佛龙（Sasol Chevron）,壳牌（Shell）, 康菲石油(ConocoPhillips), 埃克森美孚石油（EXXONMOBIL）, 马拉松石油(Marathon),这六家公司都和卡塔尔石油公司（Qatar Petroleum Co.）合作。这六家选择和卡塔尔石油公司合作最明显的原因是它拥有超过900万亿立方英尺的天然气储备，这些储备较伊朗较少一些，较俄罗斯少很多。但是与伊朗和俄罗斯相比，卡塔尔的社会环境和石油经济政策更稳定。
但是，总体而言，这六家炼油厂曾要求将可供的三分之二的天然气用于生产，但是卡塔尔过渡承诺了它们的天然气生产和储备。2005年，其中三家公司的炼油厂生产被卡塔尔石油公司缩减，一个新炼油厂的项目也被延迟。2007年年初，埃克森美孚石油公司取消了GTL合作计划。最终，这六家炼油厂中只有2家炼油厂项目还在进行，其中沙索公司低于产能运行，壳牌公司项目仍在建设中。所以，大量的基于GTL项目的润滑油的生产预期将大量减少。
煤转油（CTL）项目又重新被提上日程。在这方面，不像天然气，美国拥有世界上最多的可回收煤，大概2500亿吨，比俄国和中国要多得多。对美国而言，公司转向CTL面临明显的调整障碍，在此期间，俄国的天然气储备还拥有较大的市场利润空间。
但是，GTL项目的推迟为新的Ⅱ类和Ⅲ类润滑基础油获得了好的市场。预计未来36个月这两类润滑基础油的产量达到65000桶/天。一旦这些产品上市，目前的GTL项目还将会被进一步推迟。
Earlier this decade there were six GTL refineries announced to be built in Qatar. These included ventures by Sasol, Sasol Chevron, shell Conocophillips, ExxonMobil and Marathon. All were joint ventures with Qatar Petroleum Co. Qatar was an obvious choice for GTL refineries because it has natural gas reserves of over 900 million cubic feet(TCF), only slightly less than those of Iran and far behind those of Russia. Compared to these two, Qatar had a more stable environment and petro friendly economic policies.
However, when added up, the six refineries would have required two-thirds of the natural gas that was currently available, i.e. Qatar Petroleum and a moratorium was placed on new projects. Then earlier this year, ExxonMobil canceled its project. As a result, instead of six GTL refineries, there are only two committed projects, one by Sasol that is running below capacity and the other, one by shell that is currently under construction. As a result, the large amount of lube base oils from GTL that were expected has been substantially reduced.
These is renewed interest in coal-to-liquids (GTL) projects. In this respect, unlike the situation with regard to natural gas, the U.S. Has the world’s largest reserves of recoverable coal at about 250 billion tons, far ahead of Russia and China. For the U.S., companies interested in GTL should expect significant regulatory hurdles and at the present time Russia has more profitable markets for its gas reserves.
These GTL delays, however, has created opportunities for new Group II and Group III lubricant base oil capacity amounting to 65 KBD over the next 36 months. As these come on, it could further delay GTL projects that have been tabled for the present.
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