Sasol Ltd. (SOL) s planned coal-to-liquids project with China Shenhua Group Corp., set to become the nation s biggest such facility, received approval from the Chinese environmental ministry, according to a list on the ministry s website today.
Johannesburg-based Sasol halted development of the $10 billion plant because it was awaiting state approval, the company said in an e-mailed statement in February. The project requires final approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, China s highest economic planning body.
Sasol and Shenhua submitted an application to the NDRC in 2009 to build a 94,000 barrel-a-day plant to convert coal into motor fuel in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Sasol expected a review to be completed on Aug. 24 and said the commission was poised to make its recommendations to the nation s energy administrator by the end of 2010.
In 2008, Sasol aborted a plan to build another facility in Shaanxi province as China curbed investment in energy-intensive industries. The company operates the world s largest coal-to- fuels plant at Secunda in South Africa, where it converts more than 40 million metric tons of the raw material annually.
Shenhua is China s only producer of fuels from coal and the nation s largest coal supplier. Shares in its listed unit, China Shenhua Energy Co., rose the most in more than two years in Shanghai today after it won approval to develop a field in northern China that may boost annual output by 45 percent.
