Sasol Makes $8.1 Billion Shale Bet on U.S. Chemical Plant
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Sasol Ltd., the South African fuels maker, approved construction of an $8.1 billion plant in the U.S. that will convert natural gas into plastics and other products in the chemical industry’s largest bet on shale gas.
The project in Lake Charles, Louisiana, includes a unit known as a cracker that converts ethane, a natural gas liquid, into ethylene, Johannesburg-based Sasol said in a statement today. The ethylene will be used to make chemicals such as ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide that go into antifreeze, water bottles and carpet fiber at six new units at the site. The cracker will have capacity of 1.5 million metric tons a year.