Sasol disputes a R1.6bn tax bill by SARS over oil procurement
Sasol lowered estimated returns at its $11bn Lake Charles chemicals project in the US and said it was disputing a revised tax bill in SA. Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of liquid fuel from coal, projected an internal rate of return of 7%-8% at Lake Charles, which would convert ethane into plastics and other products. The range was based on "conservative" ethane prices and compared with a previous estimate of about 8%, co-CEO Steve Cornell told reporters on a call Monday. The Johannesburg-based company reran the numbers after "limited structural changes" to the market since February, when it last published long-term internal rate of return estimates, it said in an earlier statement. Sasol’s weighted average cost of capital for the project is 8%. The return estimate was lower "because of the views in the industry primarily around polyethylene margins pushing it down," Cornell said. The cracker still remains cost competitive and is at the lower end of the cost curve for ethylene p...
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