A process for the conversion of natural gas to hydrocarbon products by (a) mixing natural gas with a small amount of hydrogen, (b) purifying the mixture from (a) to obtain purified natural gas, (c) mixing the purified natural gas from (b) with steam to obtain the desired steam-to-carbon (S/C) ratio, (d) mixing the natural gas/steam mixture from (c) with tail gas from the downstream Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and converting the mixture into a synthesis gas, (e) cooling the synthesis gas from (d) and condensing out the process water from it, (f) leading the dry synthesis gas from (e) to a carbon dioxide removal section, and (g) sending the CO2-deprived synthesis gas to the downstream Fischer-Tropsch synthesis unit as a make-up gas. The carbon dioxide removed from the syngas in step (f) is either vented or kept for other use without any part of it being recycled.