- South Africa's Sasol (NYSE:SSL) says it is delaying investment plans for a giant gas-to-liquids plant expected to be built in Louisiana, part of a broader plan to save cash amid lower oil prices.
- The plant, to be located next to an $8B ethane cracker in Lake Charles, La., had been estimated to cost as much as $14B, making it one of the biggest planned foreign investments in the U.S.; Louisiana officials had seen the plant as a potential growth and jobs-creation engine for the state.
- SSL says it will proceed with construction of a smaller planned ethane cracker and plant in the area that would produce ethane-based products such as plastics and chemicals. Sasol said that by moving forward on that smaller project it could reassess whether to go ahead with the bigger GTL investment.