South African petrochemicals producer Sasol (Johannesburg; www.sasol.com) recently sold all of its shares in its Iranian joint venture, Arya Sasol Polymer Company. According the company, the shares, with a book value of ZAR 2.3 bn (EUR 169m) were purchased by Main Street 1095, a South African subsidiary of an Iranian investor. According to the Plasteurope.com database Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.net), Sasol has a gas-based ethylene production facility in Assaluyeh, located along the Persian Gulf, with a capacity of 1m t/y as well as a downstream polymerisation facility with a capacity of 300,000 t/y of both LDPE and HDPE.

With the 16 August transaction of sales now complete, th South Africans say they now no longer have any investments in Iran. Since the end of 2011, the petrochemical company had constantly leaked plans concerning its intention to divest of its investments in the country, which its Iranian partners denied each time. In the end, the pressure to dissolve its business interests in the Islamic Republic was apparently too much. At the beginning of 2013, the American not-for-profit, high-profile advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI, New York; www.uani.com) allegedly put mounting pressure on the South African company stating it would have difficulties realising any plans to make a stake in the US shale gas revolution in terms of building any local production facilities – see Plasteurope.com of 11.01.2013. With its Persian exit now official, the road to the US shale gas boom appears to be free of any road blocks.