Sasol halts Indonesia coal-to-liquids plant project

South Africa petrochemicals group Sasol said on Tuesday it would not continue with a planned coal-to-liquids plant project in Indonesia as it seeks to focus more on gas-to-liquids opportunities.

Coal-to-liquids (CTL) involves converting coal to liquid fuels and the gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology is a refinery process that converts natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into fuels.

Sasol has taken the decision to accelerate its focus on business development of new GTL opportunities and limit its focus on the development of CTL opportunities beyond current opportunities (China and India), which are already at advanced stages of development, company spokeswoman Jacqui O'Sullivan said in a written response.

O'Sullivan said Sasol had yet to disclose how much it planned to spend on the project as it was not even in prefeasibility.

The company will continue with talks with the Indonesian government on potential gas-to-liquids opportunities in the country, O'Sullivan said.

Sasol said last month it was looking for more gas across Africa and beyond to boost its production of chemicals and synthetic fuels.