Sasol banking on big projects in Africa, US

SASOL, the international integrated chemicals and energy company, has several near-complete projects in the pipeline that the group is banking on for its future performance.

The group said in its annual report yesterday that the $1.4 billion (R18.28bn) development in Mozambique was progressing well.

Joint chief executives Stephen Cornell and Bongani Nqwababa said development in the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) licence area in Mozambique was on schedule and within the approved budget.

“By year-end, six wells had been drilled. We expect to complete the 13-well drilling programme by the end of the 2018 calendar year and remain firmly committed to our growth plans, despite the financial challenges the country faces. We will continue to partner with the Mozambican government and other institutions on projects that will help stimulate growth,” the joint chief executives said.

Sasol released its year-end results last week, during which the group also outlined some of its projects in the year ahead.

Sasol is also developing the Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP) in the US, where it spent $7.5 billion (R98.53bn) capital expenditure of the approved $11bn budget. Lake Charles was 74 percent complete.

The group said in addition to the large capital projects in the US and Mozambique, it had delivered on several other developments in the year.

“Our high-density polyethylene joint venture with Ineos on the Gulf Coast of the US is essentially complete and is on track for start-up during quarter four of the 2017 calendar year. The complex will produce 470 kilotons annually of high-value, bimodal high-density polyethylene.”

Sasol is also busy developing some projects in South Africa, despite the economy being affected by a firmer rand and low commodity prices, as mentioned in the results.

“In Sasolburg, the second phase of our Fischer-Tropsch wax expansion project achieved beneficial operation in March 2017, allowing us to double our South African production of hard wax. This facility continues to ramp-up and produced 92 kilotons of hard wax in 2017.

“In November 2016, Loopline 2 on the Mozambique-to-Secunda pipeline reached beneficial operation. The project was delivered ahead of schedule and at least 25 percent below budget,” the group said.