Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gasification Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1515)	10/24/2008 7:17:08 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Sasol Limited (JSE - SOL; NYSE - SSL) - Sasol and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Contract Engineering Companies to Advance 80 000b/d CTL Study PR Newswire - October 22, 2008 12:30PM EDT JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group and its partner Sasol, today signed a contract with Foster Wheeler International Corporation and Wuhuan Engineering Company to carry out the Feasibility Study for an 80 000 bbl/d coal to liquids (CTL) plant at the Ningdong Chemicals Base in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China. The Ningdong base is already well advanced with a number of operating plants in existence and many others under construction. Extensive infrastructure exists, including power and water supply as well as roads, rail, housing and maintenance facilities. The site for a CTL plant has been prepared and the surrounding area also contains massive coal reserves. This follows a recent announcement by the National Reform and Development Commission of China which paved the way for the feasibility study on the Shenhua - Ningxia Sasol CTL Project to continue. The completion of the feasibility Study will be an important step in obtaining all the necessary approvals associated with constructing a world scale CTL plant in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. China needs to find ways to meet its increasing demand for environmentally friendly fuels, and the CTL route is seen as a promising option. Sasol Investor Relations Tel.: +27 11 441 3113 / 3563 / 3321 investor.relations@sasol.com Sasol is an integrated oil and gas company with substantial chemical interests. Based in South Africa and operating worldwide, Sasol is listed on the NYSE and JSE stock exchanges. We are the leading provider of liquid fuels in South Africa and a major international producer of chemicals. Sasol uses proprietary Fischer-Tropsch technologies for the commercial production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from low-grade coal and natural gas. We manufacture more than 200 fuel and chemical products that are sold worldwide. In South Africa we also operate coal mines to provide feedstock for our synthetic fuels plants. Sasol operates the only inland crude oil refinery in South Africa. The group produces crude oil in offshore Gabon, supplies Mozambican natural gas to end-user customers and petrochemical plants in South Africa, and with partners involved in gas-to-liquids fuel joint ventures in Qatar and Nigeria. Internet address: sasol.com Disclaimer - Forward-looking statements We may in this document make statements that are not historical facts and relate to analyses and other information based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. There are forward- looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "seek", "will", "plan", "could", "may", "endeavor" and "project" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but are not exclusive means of identifying such statements. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there are risks that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. If one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may be very different from those anticipated. The factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements are discussed more fully in our annual report under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on Form20-F filed on November 21, 2007 and in other filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements apply only as of the date on which they are made and Sasol does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE Sasol Limited

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1515)	10/24/2008 7:21:20 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Sasol’s CTL project in China ahead of South Africa’s CTL project miningweekly.com By: Martin Creamer Published on 24th October 2008 Sasol’s proposed coal-to-liquids (CTL) project in China is ahead of its CTL project in South Africa. The project in China is at feasibility stage whereas the one in South Africa is still at prefeasibility stage. The Chinese CTL has a physical site whereas the prefeasibility study for South Africa’s Mafutha project includes determining whether or not the site under study in western Limpopo is suitable. Both are targeting an 80 000 bl/d capacity, which is half the capacity of Sasol’s flagship synfuels plant in Secunda, which is being enlarged by 4% while an additional 16% extension is at prefeasibility stage. Sasol Synfuels’ fuels output should have grown by several percentage points more than the moderate 1,1% in the 12 months to June 30, 2008, but Sasol CEO Pat Davies assures that the company has plans to do better in the current financial year. In China, Sasol has agreed to focus on only one CTL project with China’s State-owned Shenhua. “We will focus only on the Ningxia project,” says Davies. This project is in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and is one of “ten and 20 CTL projects that were on the go in China”, Davies reveals. But the Chinese government has given approval to only two CTL projects – and Sasol’s is one of them. Moreover, Sasol’s is the only one involving foreign investment; the other is 100% Chinese. “This gives us a lot of comfort about the priority that the Chinese government is placing on this project going ahead. “We are pretty excited about it – we can focus our resources on it and do it as quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can,” he says. An analyst expressed concern that the Chinese may try to copy Sasol’s proprietary technology, but Davies says that the “copying” risk is being given Sasol’s “very serious attention”. “We are quite happy in this feasibility stage that we are taking sufficient precautionary measures, but, clearly, as we go into the execution and actual running phase, there are long and short answers. “The short version of it is that we are dealing with Shenhua, which is the largest coal company in the world and is listed on stock exchanges, and Shenhua has to play the game, otherwise it just won’t be accepted in the international community,” Davies says. He adds that he has had personal assurances from the Premier of China on the copying issue. Moreover, China is a signatory to the World Trade Organisation. “[They] cannot have their companies going around pinching technologies in the dark of night. The two are just not compatible,” says Davies. A commercial agreement will also be put in place, Davies says, to disincentivise China from “stealing the technology, if we can use that phraseology”. “The way we do that is to grant payment for a master licence so that, for a fee, the Chinese can go and build other plants if they want to build them without our direct involvement. “That’s something that is under discussion with the Chinese as well. “A risk, yes, but we think it is a manageable one,” Davies reiterates. Sasol notes that the greater focus on Ningxia means that Sasol’s Shaanxi feasibility study will not proceed at this stage. Davies believes it correct to focus all attention and resources on ensuring the planning and construction of the integrated Ningxia CTL plant, in which Sasol is a full partner. The feasibility study for this is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 and transport fuel produced by 2016. Allowing only the joint Shenhua Ningxia Coal Group and Sasol project in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is seen as a Chinese effort to reduce investment in the sector to ease a tight coal supply position. Sasol says that the advant-ages of a focused approach were demonstrated at Secunda in the seventies when Sasol introduced the phased construction of the Sasol Two and Sasol Three projects. Renewed global interest in CTL, despite the propensity of the process to emit large volumes of carbon dioxide, has arisen as coal-rich countries seek to diversify their transport-fuels mix away from the current heavy reliance on crude oil imports, and to ensure greater energy security. Editor: Shannon O’Donnell