Despite the significant progress in industrial GTL technologies, even the world class GTL plants have only a marginal profitability. One of the main reasons is the high expenditures for syngas production. Therefore, there are no expectations of a significant increase of traditional GTL in the nearest future. The paper discusses two alternative possibilities. The first one is decreasing the cost of syngas by matrix conversion of hydrocarbon gases. The second is the development of alternative "without syngas" GTL routes via direct partial oxidation or oxy-cracking of hydrocarbons with the subsequent catalytic carbonylation and/or oligomerization of oxidation products. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.