Sasol signs petrol deal with Canadian Talisman

Petrochemical giant Sasol has signed a $1-billion deal to buy a 50% stake in a shale petrol field owned by Canadian energy firm Talisman, the South African company said on Monday.

The deal will see Sasol and Talisman split ownership of Talisman’s Farrell Creek shale gas assets in the western province of British Columbia, a 21 000-hectare field with an estimated 9.6 trillion cubic feet of unlocked natural petrol, Sasol said in a statement.

Talisman will continue to operate the field, which Sasol said was attractive because of its proximity to existing North American natural petrol pipelines.

The companies said they plan to study the possibility of building a facility to convert natural gas to liquid fuels using Sasol’s technology.

North America has seen a shale petrol boom in recent years as technology to extract natural gas from the underground rock has improved dramatically.

The new techniques, which involve jetting high-pressure liquid deep into the ground, releasing the petrol and bringing it to the surface, have more than doubled the continent’s discovered petrol resources to 85-trillion cubic feet.—Sapa-AFP