In June 2005 Sasol announced that it had signed an agreement to explore for gas in an area covering more than 11 000 square kilometres off the Mozambican coast. This is directly offshore the gas fields of the award winning US$1,2 billion Natural Gas Venture that supplies natural gas to Sasol's petrochemical operations and customers in South Africa and Mozambique.
In February 2004 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) had agreed to make a $18,5m equity investment in a joint venture with Sasol and ENH, Mozambique's national petroleum company, to develop natural gas resources in Inhambane Province. The Sasol-operated project will develop two natural gas fields, a central processing facility, and a 900km pipeline linking the fields in Mozambique to Secunda in Mpumalanga, including the conversion of the Sasol gas distribution network and the shift from coal fuel to gas as a feedstock for chemical plants. The IFC's investment will give it a 5% stake in the upstream portion of the project, the development of the gas fields and the central processing facility. Sasol will hold 70%, and CMH, a subsidiary of ENH, will hold 25%. In the same month Sasol also announced that it had completed its 865km natural gas pipeline between Maputo, Mozambique, and Secunda in Mpumalanga.
