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Sasol to spend USD6bn to expand Qatar operations
Sasol said yesterday (24 Mar 04) that it was planning a USD6bn expansion of its operations in Qatar. Sasol executive director Pat Davies, in a telephone interview with Business Day from Qatar, said that the growth there would be three-pronged. In the first leg of the expansion production at Sasol's existing 34 000 barrels a day Oryx gas-to-liquid project, a joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, is to be expanded to 100 000 barrels a day and would cost about USD1.5bn. The second leg of the Qatar expansion blueprint would involve a USD45bn integrated gas-to-liquid fuel operation. The third leg of the expansion plan will involve a "bolt-on" facility, probably sited alongside its Oryx plant, to produce high-quality lubricants.
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Sasol raises R3.83bn for natural gas project
Standard Bank and the Development Bank of South Africa have helped arrange debt finance of R3.83bn for Sasol's natural gas project in Mozambique. The banks are joint lead arrangers for the USD1.2bn venture between Sasol and the South African and Mozambican governments. Funding was required for the development of the Pande and Temane gas fields in Mozambique, the construction of a central processing facility in Mozambique and the building of an 865km pipeline to transport the gas to Sasol's Secunda plant. Standard Bank acted as the lead arranger of the commercial bank facilities, while DBSA acted as lead arranger and underwriter of the Development Financial Institutions (DFI) and Multilateral Agencies (MLA) tranche of the debt financing. Sasol chief executive, Pieter Cox, was quoted by Business Day as saying: "The project is ample testimony of Sasol's ability to participate confidently in the international oil and gas exploration and production fields. It is the catalyst for our group's longer-term growth in southern Africa and will provide significant opportunities for the development of a natural gas industry in the region." When the pipeline reaches full capacity, it will boost the proportion of natural gas as South Africa's primary energy supply from the current 1.5% to about 4.3%. This is in line with the South African Government's policy of diversifying energy supply. The project is expected to deliver 120m gigajoules of natural gas a year by 2008.
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Sasol to sell detonator technology to Australians
Sasol has announced that it is negotiating the sale of its electronic detonator technology to Orica Mining Services of Australia for AD17m. Sasol will manufacture detonators for Orica for distribution into Africa and other regions.
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Sasol cosiders building biodiesel plant
Sasol is considering building a plant that will convert 400 000 tons of soya beans a year into 91m litres of diesel. If the project goes ahead South Africa's soya production will have to quadruple if the country is to meet the demand. Local farmers produced only 136 500 tons of soya last year. Initially the company will have to import the soya beans to allow the local market to grow a big enough crop. The project has the potential to create hundreds of much needed jobs. The production of low-sulphur bio-diesel will help to reduce Sasol's exposure to crude oil price fluctuations. The company to Business Report yesterday (12 Mar 04) that it might decide by July whether to build the soya bio-diesel plant.
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Sasol expected to report lower earnings
Sasol is expected to report substantially lower interim results for the six months to 31 Dec 03, largely due to the strength of the rand. Analysts expect the group to report HEPS of 460c, a 39% decrease from the previously reported 752c. The high international oil prices and improvements in some of the group's operations are likely to counter the effect of the strong rand. Sasol's full year results for the year ending 30 Jun 04 are also expected to be lower than the previous year.
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