Sasol Builds New
Plant to Double Octene Production
Monday January 16,
7:11 am ET
JOHANNESBURG,
South
Africa---Jan. 16, 2006—Sasol www.sasol.com today announced that construction of a
100 000 tons per annum 1-Octene plant in Secunda in South Africa was
underway. The facility is scheduled to go into production during the
second half of 2007 and will double Sasol's existing 1-Octene output
to 200 000 tons a year.
Technology group
Linde AG was awarded the "detail engineering, procurement and
construction" contract.
"This new
facility comes on the back of growing global demand from plastics
manufacturers for this hydrocarbon molecule that, among others, gives
special performance features such as elasticity, flexibility, impact
resistance and strength to plastic consumer products," says Sasol
deputy CE Trevor Munday.
The new plant is
the third 1-Octene facility to be constructed by Linde AG. Two
1-Octene plants with a combined capacity of about 100 000 tons a year
a
"Linde and Sasol
started their business and technology cooperation more than 50 years
ago. The two companies have through the years perfected their
integration between R&D, pilot plant, engineering and project
execution teams. The Alpha-Olefins venture, which began 15 years ago,
is a unique success story and this project is only the last element of
a long chain. Linde is very proud to be associated with this great
South African enterprise," says Dr Aldo Belloni, member of the
executive board of Linde AG, and responsible for the business segment,
Gas and Engineering.
Sasol is a
leading producer of products such as octene, pentene and hexene for
use as chemical intermediates in the production of plasticizer
alcohols, polymers, polyethylene, fatty acids, detergent alcohol and
lubrication oil additives.
Octene is often
used in combination with hexene and pentene to engineer a host of
specific characteristics such as strength, thinness, elasticity and
puncture resistance in products ranging from dense and durable plastic
for wire coatings, automotive interiors, raincoats and strong garbage
bas to low-density, high-quality shopping bags, cling-wrap film and
myriad related consumer plastics.
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 is developing
gas-to-liquids fuel joint ventures in Qatar and Nigeria. Internet
address:
Contact:
Sasol Investor Relations
Johannesburg office, +27 11 441 3113/3563/3321
investor.relations@sasol.com
Fax: +27 11 522 1184
Source: Sasol |