Sasol is in talks with Petronas and an unidentified local gas company, said Lean Strauss, a general manager at Johannesburg-based Sasol, in a speech on Monday, 9 March 2009. Sasol may be able to report progress on the project within the next six months, he said.

“It could be about 40,000 barrels a day,” Strauss said in an interview. The Qatari plant, in which Sasol has a 49% stake, has the capacity to produce 34,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. The rest of the plant is owned by state- owned Qatar Petroleum.

Uzbekistan will soon become a net oil importer, boosting the need for local fuel production, Strauss said.