What a WASTE!! Natural Gas has much higher value than converting it to liquid. It is the perfect fuel for heating and cooling buildings and providing feedstock to petrochemical plants.
Coal is not effective for either of those uses, but is abundant.
Sasol has good coal liquefaction technology and could apply that rather than their gas-to-liquid technology.
No, just the opposite.
In 2013, natural gas is expected to be $3.34 per MMBtu. It should average $2.65 per MMBtu in 2012.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/archives/Sep12.pdf
The current price of diesel in the US is over $31 per MMBTU. There is a lot of room to spend money on the conversion and still profit on the conversion.