South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation (Sasol, SOL) on Tuesday confirmed its decision not to continue with a Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) project in Indonesia.
The group said that it would instead, turn its focus to Gas-to-Liquids opportunities.
In December 2009, Sasol, with the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which facilitated the commencement of a screening study into the viability of an integrated Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) project in the Republic of Indonesia, using Sasol's proprietary technology.
The MoU was signed in London by Gita Wirjawan, the chairman of the Investment Coordination Board of the Republic of Indonesia and Ernst Oberholster, the managing director of Sasol Synfuels International (Pty) Limited.
On Tuesday however, Sasol said in a statement that it would turn its focus to Gas-to-Liquids opportunities. "Sasol has taken the decision to accelerate its focus on business development of new Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) opportunities and to limit its focus on the development of CTL opportunities beyond current opportunities (China and India) which are already at advanced stages of development.
"Sasol hopes to continue its partnership with the Indonesian government and to progress discussions on potential GTL opportunities in Indonesia," the group said.
An investment figure of S$10 billion was mentioned in the media, however, a spokesperson at Sasol pointed out that the project was not even in pre-feasibility, which meant that at no point was a figure placed against the project.
Sasol has been producing fuels and chemicals from coal for over fifty years in South Africa and operates the world's only commercial scale coal-based synthetic fuels manufacturing facility at Secunda in South Africa. - I-Net Bridge