( CNN ) -- It may be far from home but a South African company is powering its way into the U.S. energy landscape , hoping that its grand plan to introduce a once-shunned technology in the United States will pay off . Sasol , a Johannesburg-based energy giant , announced late last year its intention to spend up to $ 14 billion on building the first U.S.-based commercial plant to perform the alchemy of turning natural gas into liquid fuels -- hailed as one of the biggest investments from a non-U.S. company in American history . Using a process known as gas-to-liquids ( GTL ) , the company plans to chemically convert gas into transport fuels , lubricants and other chemical products . `` In that technology we take natural gas and we actually break the molecule down and then reform that molecule into other high-value products like diesel , '' says Mike Thomas , Sasol 's vice president of U.S. operations , explaining the company 's proprietary technology . Gas boom . Sasol 's mega-project in Louisiana also includes a separate $ 5 to $ 7 billion ethane cracker and derivatives plant . It has picked the United States for its GTL facility because the country has abundant shale gas , released through the controversial drilling process of hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking . Due to the rise in fracking , estimates suggest that the U.S. has more than 100 years ' supply of natural gas . Sasol , which has been producing synthetic fuels for decades , says it will not be fracking directly to source natural gas feedstock for its facilities , instead tapping into the U.S. natural gas market through the existing infrastructure . Read this : World 's biggest dam to light up Africa ? `` The price of the natural gas in the United States is about the lowest in the world and the markets are also in the U.S. , '' says Thomas . `` If you look within the United States , particularly on the U.S. Gulf Coast where we are ... there is no better infrastructure for the petrochemical industry in the United States , and probably in the world . '' Old technology , new use ? Although GTL is only now gearing toward its commercial U.S. debut , the process on which it 's based dates back to the 1920s . Yet , by the 1950s , the conversion technology was largely abandoned . High production costs and the emergence of much cheaper products made from refined crude oil rendered GTL commercially unviable . Meanwhile , the high correlation between natural gas and crude oil markets meant that there was n't a significant difference between the two prices , therefore no opportunity for companies to exploit margins . As a result , the technology failed to establish a foothold in the market . The only country where it gained wide traction was coal-rich South Africa where international embargoes during the apartheid years made oil hard to come by . Today , only Sasol and Royal Dutch Shell are converting gas into liquid vehicle fuel on a commercial level . Yet experts say the current price difference between natural gas and oil , courtesy of the recent shale gas boom , coupled with the long-term global transport trends favoring low-emissions fuels , have helped turn GTL into a particularly appealing proposition in places like North America -- as it means less reliance on oil from the Middle East . `` We 're taking Sasol 's technology , which was developed here in South Africa for the past 63 years , and helping the U.S. be more energy independent and have a security of supply , '' says Sasol 's chief executive David Constable . Restraints . Sasol , which already operates smaller GTL plants in South Africa and Qatar , expects its Louisiana-based facility to produce at least 96,000 barrels per day , creating 1,200 permanent jobs in the following years . It describes GTL diesel as a cleaner-burning fuel that can be used in existing vehicles and fuel delivery infrastructure without any modifications . Yet despite the renewed interest in GTL , many still see the technology as a precarious business . Analysts say the requirement to invest hefty sums to build plants and manufacture products means that finances for large-scale projects could often be difficult to balance . `` The economics can be a bit shaky , '' says Craig Brown , downstream oil and petrochemicals analyst at PFC Energy . `` The whole process is extremely energy intensive and tends to be more costly than crude distillation , '' he adds . But , more importantly , critics say the biggest danger is that if the cost of gas rises to the price of oil , the technology will lose its commercial appeal . `` With that amount of capital expenditure , they need to have a degree of certainty that the gas prices are going to stay at a certain price for a long period of time to make it an economically viable project long-term , '' says Brown . 'Very viable ' Still , Sasol is determined to press ahead with its big plans . The company says its investments are `` well-reviewed '' and thoroughly scrutinized `` to make sure that these are good sound projects '' that will open up new economic opportunities . `` We 've looked at it in many different ways , '' says Constable . `` We 've proven it here in South Africa , we 've proven it up in Qatar , '' he adds . `` It 's a sought-after product , it 's a sought-after technology -- if you look at those dynamics as macroeconomics over the long term , we see our projects as being very , very viable . ''
South African energy giant Sasol building a gas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana . The technology will help it convert natural gas to transportation fuels . Project is one of the biggest investments from a non-U.S. company in American history . Critics warn the technology is not commercially viable if cost of the gas rises to the price of oil .