The new strategy follows completion of Sasol’s reviews on more than half of its global assets which confirmed that the majority of its assets will be retained.
Sasol financial framework CFO Paul Victor said: “While our current GTL assets are generating good returns and cash flows, the value proposition for Sasol to build new GTL projects is uneconomic against a volatile external environment and structural shift to a low oil price environment.”
The firm said that the review has also identified that its shale gas assets in Canada as non-core and also decided not to invest in any additional crude oil refining capacity.
As a result, the firm plans to commence a structured divestment process for its Canadian assets along with its assets’ partner Progress Energy.
However, Sasol said it would continue to focus on completing its $11.13bn Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP) in the US.
Sasol Joint president and CEO Stephen Cornell said: “Our existing application know-how and strong product portfolio in a broad range of specialty chemical products, gives us confidence we can deliver in this area.”
Additionally, Sasol said it plans to focus on production sharing agreement in Mozambique as well as extract further value from its existing portfolio of diversified assets, until 2022.
Victor added: “In this period we are targeting an improvement in return on invested capital (ROIC) of at least 2% on our financial year 2017 base.
“This will be achieved through continuous improvement that will encompass various initiatives across our value chain.”
Beyond 2022, the firm would consider investing between $500m to $1bn to develop specialty chemicals, exploration and production and retail fuels.
Image: Sasol’s olefins and surfactants plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, US. Photo: courtesy of SASOL/Wikipedia.
