Showing its commitment to the proposed new 80 000 bl/d coal-to-liquids plant, project Mafutha, the Sasol board has committed R300-million to the feasibility studies for the project.

"I think this shows our commitment - we want to make this project work, and I think it will be great for us [Sasol], and it will be great for the country too," stated Sasol CEO Pat Davies at the company's half-year results presentation on Monday.

"We believe that with the current increases in liquid fuel demand in the market, there is a space in the market for a project the size of Mafutha," added Sasol executive director Benny Mokaba, who said that the project studies were on track and making "good progress".

No clarity was offered on the location of the new plant, and coal-rich sites in Free State province, as well as the Waterberg region in Limpopo province were said to be under consideration as a part of the feasibility studies.

Davies indicated that the work currently being done with regard to project Mafutha was "preliminary work, both technical, commercial, sourcing feedstocks, and ensuring we have the right infrastructure".

Emphasising the synfuels giant's commitment to the environment and sustainability, Davies also stated that the plant would be built ensuring it was carbon capture and storage ‘ready', however, "as for the percentage of carbon, and what we do with the carbon - that is still a part of the feasibility study," he added.

With regard to the electricity shortage experienced in South Africa, Davies stated that Sasol was working with Eskom and the government "to see what else we can bring to bear using our technology and the feedstocks that we have to alleviate the situation on energy".

He did, however, reiterate that the company's primary role was "to make sure that we keep the country, particularly inland, ‘wet' as far as liquid fuels are concerned".

Project Mafutha, which could contribute as much as 80 000 bl/d of liquid fuel when it came on line, would certainly go a long way to ensure that the company fulfilled this role.

Going forward, Sasol believed that liquid fuel supplies would remain reasonably tight in the inland regions, until there were new pipelines built from the coast into the inland regions, and said that the company was doing what it could to "improve production rates inland to compensate for that production tightness".