OHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb 05, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Sasol (JSE: SOL ; NYSE: SSL) iGas and Compania Mozambicana de Gasoduto, as joint partners in the Republic of Mozambique Pipeline Investment Company (ROMPCO), today announced construction of a R1.1 billion gas compression station to facilitate a 20% expansion of natural gas delivery from Mozambique to South Africa by the end of 2009.
The gas compression station will be based at Komatipoort in South Africa and will increase gas delivery capacity from a current 120 million gigajoules a year to about 147 million gigajoules a year. Construction will commence by mid 2008.
Two gas-turbine driven compressor units and ancillary equipment will be used at Komatipoort to increase gas flow rates in ROMPCO's 865 km long transborder pipeline that transports the natural gas from the Pande and Temane gasfield in Mozambique to Sasol's operations at Secunda and Sasolburg in South Africa.
The engineering, procurement and construction management contract has been awarded to Foster Wheeler South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
The pipeline forms part of the US1.2 billion Natural Gas venture, inaugurated by former President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on 1 June 2004. It is designed to have a capacity to transport 240 million gigajoules of gas a year.
The ROMPCO shareholding partners are the South African government through iGas (25%); the Mozambican government though Compania Mozambicana de Gasoduto (25%); and Sasol Gas (50%).
The project will provide short-term employment for about 450 people of whom about 150 will be skilled artisans and 300 local workers. Preference will be given to local and South African suppliers as far as equipment and material sourcing is concerned.
The additional gas will be used as part of the first phase of a planned 20% expansion of Sasol Synfuel's capacity at Secunda over the next eight years.
Three quarters of the eventual additional Synfuels capacity will use natural gas as feedstock with its more benign effects on the environment and the balance will be based on fine coal reserves.
Some of the first phase additional gas is earmarked for the gas turbine driven electricity generators recently ordered by Sasol Synfuels in Secunda. Commissioning of both the pipeline compressor station as well as the gas turbines is expected by late 2009.
Sasol is an integrated oil and gas company with substantial chemical interests. Based in South Africa and operating worldwide, Sasol is listed on the NYSE and JSE stock exchanges. We are the leading provider of liquid fuels in South Africa and a major international producer of chemicals. Sasol uses proprietary Fischer-Tropsch technologies for the commercial production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from low-grade coal and natural gas. We manufacture more than 200 fuel and chemical products that are sold worldwide. In South Africa we also operate coal mines to provide feedstock for our synthetic fuels plants. Sasol operates the only inland crude oil refinery in South Africa. The group produces crude oil in offshore Gabon, supplies Mozambican natural gas to end-user customers and petrochemical plants in South Africa, and with partners involved in gas-to-liquids fuel joint ventures in Qatar and Nigeria. Internet address: http://www.sasol.com
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