Sasol: Costs key to US gas project decision

SASOL said on Monday that a decision on whether to proceed with a US facility to turn natural gas into transportation fuels would depend on cost overruns at an $8.1 billion (R88.6bn) chemical plant it was building in Louisiana. Sasol would decide in 2016 whether to build a gas-to-liquids (GTL), plant at the site of the planned ethane cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana, chief executive David Constable said in an interview. A decision to proceed on what would be the first plant of its kind in the US would depend on costs at the chemical project, the price of oil, diesel and gas and the health of the global economy, Constable said. Both projects are being proposed to capitalise on a jump in North American gas output from shale formations. The GTL project, which Constable last year estimated would cost $14bn, would produce diesel fuel and waxes. The project was in the front-end engineering and design phase, he said. Sasol on Monday approved the final investment decision for the construction of the ethylene plant in Lake Charles. The GTL plant may produce 96 000 barrels of fuel a day. Sasol yesterday fell 0.09 percent to R550.21 on the JSE. – Bloomberg