The world's largest synthetic fuel producer Sasol of South Africa is planning to build two large plants in China to feed the country's fast-growing demand for fuel.

The two projects, in northwest China's Ningxia and Shaanxi, are expected to cost about US$3 billion each and will have a combined annual production of 60-million tons of oil.

A letter of intent between South Africa's largest industrial company and a consortium of six Chinese companies was signed Wednesday in Pretoria, during the visit to South Africa by China's vice president Zeng Qinghong.

A Sasol executive said the company is talking over four or five Secundas, which are Sasol's flagship plants in South Africa with a productivity of 150,000 barrels of oil a day. 

(CRI July 1, 2004)