Sasol Ltd via its subsidiary Sasol Oil (Pty) Ltd. and Total SA via its subsidiary Total South Africa (Pty) Ltd. are stopping production at their partnership refinery in South Africa due to the decline in regional demand on coronavirus-containing measures.
Production at the 108,000 bpd National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (Natref) refinery in Sasolburg started on April 9 until further notice.
The decision was taken following South Africa’s national lockdown starting March 27.
Sasol also cut daily production of its Secunda Synfuels Operations (SSO), the world’s only commercial coal-based synthetic fuels manufacturing site to synthesis gas (syngas) through coal gasification and natural gas reforming.
Sasol will continue to meet South Africa’s current demand for fuels and chemicals, including sanitizers, by prioritizing the production of chemicals at its regional operations.
Due to these decisions, Sasol has lowered its liquid fuels sales volumes this year to 50-51 million barrels from the previous 57-58 million barrels prediction. Production of synfuels will likely fall to around 7.3-7.4 million tpa from the earlier forecast of 7.7-7.8 million tpa.
