CAPITAL: PRETORIA/CAPE TOWN
MONETARY UNIT: RAND
REFINING CAPACITY: 466,547 B/CD
PRODUCTION: 20,000 B/D
OIL/CONDENSATE RESERVES:
29 MILLION BBL
NATURAL GAS RESERVES: 780 BCF
Lingering worry about oil prices quelled most exploration off South Africa during 1999, but numerous processing projects made progress.
National Petroleum Refiners (Pty.) Ltd. (Natref) was to expand the capacity of its Sasolburg refinery to 105,000 b/d from 86,000 b/d at an anticipated cost of 750 million rand ($125 million). The upgrade was intended to allow the company to convert more than 90% of its crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel versus 65-70% as of mid-1999.
Natref shareholders are Sasol Ltd. and Total South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., which own 63.64% and 36.36%, respectively. Natref envisaged commissioning of the expanded plant in first half 2002.
Chevron formed a joint venture with Sasol for worldwide use of a technology for converting natural gas to a more easily used and transported liquid. Chevron said it anticipated spending billions of dollars to develop the technology.
Sasol was to build an ethyl acetate plant based on a new alcohol-to-ester process developed by Kvaerner Process Technology, a unit of Kvaerner AS, Oslo. Kvaerner said Sasol Chemical Industries planned to build a 50,000 tonne/year ethyl acetate plant at its Secunda complex near Johannesburg that incorporates a patented process based on an ethanol feedstock. Start-up was scheduled for mid-2000.
