The history of Sasol is the story of South Africa using science, engineering and long-term investment to solve a fundamental industrial problem: the country possessed enormous coal reserves but very little crude oil.
From that challenge emerged one of South Africa’s most important industrial enterprises—and one of the world’s leading centres of synthetic-fuel technology.
The original idea: producing oil from coal
During the early twentieth century, scientists discovered that coal could be converted into liquid fuels. The most important breakthrough was the Fischer–Tropsch process, developed in Germany during the 1920s by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch.
The early investigations
South African scientists began seriously investigating coal-based fuel during the 1920s. The country had substantial coal deposits, including coal that was not always suitable for conventional export markets.
In 1927, the government published a White Paper examining international coal-to-oil technologies and their possible application in South Africa.
Researchers and industrial planners continued studying the idea during the 1930s and 1940s. Among the most influential figures was Etienne Rousseau, a scientist and industrial organiser who helped transform the concept from a laboratory possibility into a practical industrial undertaking.
Sasol is established
The South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation Limited was formally established on 26 September 1950.
Its abbreviated name became Sasol.
The new company had an ambitious mandate: to mine South African coal and convert it into fuels and chemical products on a commercially sustainable scale.
This required far more than constructing a refinery. Sasol had to develop an integrated industrial system consisting of:
coal mines;
coal-processing facilities;
gasifiers;
chemical reactors;
refineries;
laboratories;
water and electricity infrastructure;
transport networks;
maintenance workshops;
and a highly specialised workforce.
It was one of the largest and most technically demanding industrial projects undertaken in South Africa at the time.
The creation of Sasolburg
The first plant was constructed near the Vaal River in the northern Free State. A new industrial town, Sasolburg, developed around the project.
Sasolburg was planned to accommodate the engineers, scientists, artisans, administrators and other employees required to operate the complex. It included housing, schools, shops, recreational facilities, roads and municipal services.
The town and the company effectively grew together. Sasolburg became one of the central points of the Vaal Triangle industrial region, alongside Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging.
