Sasol Ltd. hopes to cut $2.5-4.1 billion over a 30-month period, using Dec. 31 as the baseline, in response to what it describes as the “lower-for-longer oil price environment.”
The company now expects to save $360 million by the end of financial year 2016.
Part of the company’s cost cutting plan has included the reduction of 1,500 jobs through voluntary separations and early retirements in a workforce scale-down that will last through June.
Additional savings will come through a 30-month freezing of 500-1,000 vacancies as well as supply chain cost base reduction initiatives.
Sasol in January delayed the final investment decision on its $11-14 billion gas-to-liquids plant near Westlake, La. (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2015).
It was slated to sit adjacent to the company’s $8.9-billion proposed integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives complex, for which a contract last month was let to GE Oil & Gas to provide the main-compression trains required for a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant (OGJ Online, Feb. 2, 2015).
A $4-billion credit facility was secured for the complex in December (OGJ Online, Dec. 23, 2014).
