Sasol sings as war sends oil profits surging
Sasol reported a 17% jump in profit as the world’s biggest producer of fuel and chemicals from coal benefited from a surge in the oil price caused by the Iran war.
Johannesburg-based Sasol reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of R60.7 billion in the year ended June 30, it said in a filing on Tuesday.
That compares with R51.8 billion in the same period a year earlier.
The company ramped up production at its Secunda manufacturing hub, even though the emissions-rich process makes it South Africa’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
The Secunda hub, with the capacity to produce 160,000 barrels a day of synthetic fuel, has increased output to the highest level in five years.
Sasol’s Natref plant, one of two crude-oil refineries still operating in South Africa, helped the nation mitigate a gap left by fuel imports from the Middle East stranded by the conflict.
Sasol’s been realising a healthy profit, considering its $50 breakeven level, with the war pushing oil prices higher than $100 a barrel.
The company is attempting to reduce its emissions.
It’s built about 500 megawatts of renewable-energy capacity, secured more than twice that amount, plans to procure 2,000 megawatts over time, and is pursuing carbon-offset projects, Sasol Chief Executive Officer Simon Baloyi said in an interview last month.
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