Resumen del autor, extraído del trabajo. Sasol is fifty years old this year during the course of 2000. In this period Sasol has become the only company to have successfully based an entire fuels and chemicals business on Fischer-Tropsch technology. Sasol has commercialized several versions of the Fischer-Tropsch process. One modern version described as the Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate Process finds increasing application in the conversion of remote natural gas. The paper describes the process, its development and commercialisation. It describes the partnerships formed by Sasol to improve the commercial and economic viability of the process. These partnerships have led to a well integrated, leading edge technology. The technology challenges involved are described and the approach to overcoming many of these have been addressed. Some attention is given to the quality of the hydrocarbons produced by the SPD process and the applications that these will find in a world needing increasingly better quality fuels to drive the high efficiency, low emissions enginees required by a modern world. Finally the paper describes several of the opportunities for application of the Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate process being pursued at present.