We journey from the first investigations into coal-based fuel during the 1920s to the establishment of Sasol in 1950
There are companies that manufacture products—and then there are companies that alter the industrial destiny of a country.
Sasol belongs to the second category.
Its story began with a formidable question: what does a country with vast deposits of coal, but almost no crude oil, do to secure the fuel required to move its people, power its industries and sustain a modern economy?
The answer was audacious: it would manufacture oil from coal.
What followed was one of the most ambitious scientific and engineering undertakings in South African history. Mines were opened. New technologies were mastered. Vast processing plants rose from the Highveld.
Entire towns—Sasolburg and Secunda—were built around an industrial vision that many might once have considered impossible.
But Sasol did more than produce petrol and diesel. It developed chemicals, fuels, waxes, fertilisers and industrial materials that quietly entered factories, farms, vehicles and households throughout South Africa and beyond. Over time, a national experiment became a multinational energy and chemicals enterprise.
This documentary takes us inside that remarkable journey: from the early scientific investigations of the 1920s to the establishment of Sasol in 1950; from the difficult birth of Sasol One to the enormous industrial landscape of Secunda; from coal-to-liquids to natural gas, international chemicals and the emerging possibilities of green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
It is a history of laboratories and mines, catalysts and pipelines, engineering breakthroughs and difficult corporate lessons. Above all, it is the history of people who confronted an apparent national limitation and refused to accept it as permanent.
Today, Sasol stands before another great transformation. The company that mastered the conversion of coal into liquid fuel must now apply that same depth of scientific knowledge to a lower-carbon future.
To understand where Sasol is going, however, we must first understand where it came from.
This is the story of an idea that became a company, a company that built two towns, and an industrial undertaking that helped reshape South Africa.
This is The History of Sasol.
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