Sasol Secures EU Certification for Sustainable Jet Fuel, Pivoting Africa’s Biggest Polluter Toward Green Aviation Exports

South African petrochemical giant Sasol has received ISCC Plus sustainability certification from Germany’s TUV SUD agency for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced at its 108,500-barrel-per-day Natref refinery in Sasolburg. The certification, which also covers sustainable chemicals produced at Sasol’s Secunda complex, clears the regulatory path for the company to launch exporting SAF to the European Union — a market facing both a deepening jet fuel shortage driven by the Middle East conflict and escalating blconcludeing mandates under the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation regulation. Sasol’s SAF is produced applying utilized cooking oil and veobtainable oil, feedstocks that South Africa currently exports in raw form to Europe for refining. The company is tarobtaining one to two million litres of SAF production in 2026, scaling to 16 million litres in 2027 and up to 200 million litres by 2030 across its Natref and Secunda facilities. Separately, Sasol has partnered with Anglo American and De Beers under a joint development agreement to grow Solaris and Moringa crops on former mining land to develop a domestic biolipid feedstock supply chain. The relocates represent a significant strategic pivot for a company whose Secunda plant is considered the world’s single largest point source of greenhoutilize gas emissions.

Key Overview

Certification: ISCC Plus sustainability certification granted by Germany’s TUV SUD for SAF and sustainable chemicals
Production facility: Natref refinery, Sasolburg (108,500 bpd capacity), converting to a hybrid bio-refinery
Feedstock: Used cooking oil and veobtainable oil
SAF production tarobtains: 1–2 million litres in 2026; 16 million litres in 2027; 100 million litres by 2030 (Natref); 200 million litres by 2030 (including Secunda)
EU market driver: ReFuelEU Aviation mandate requiring 2% SAF blconcludeing from 2025, rising to 6% by 2030 and 70% by 2050
Geopolitical context: US-Israel-Iran conflict crimping global jet fuel supplies, with the EU among the worst-hit regions
Partnership: Joint development agreement with Anglo American and De Beers for Solaris and Moringa crop feedstock on former mining land
Emissions profile: Sasol’s Secunda plant emitted over 64,000 kilotons of CO2 in 2023; company tarobtaining 30% emissions reduction by 2030 from 2017 baseline

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From Used Cooking Oil to EU-Certified Jet Fuel

The core of Sasol’s SAF strategy rests on a straightforward logic: South Africa already produces and collects large volumes of utilized cooking oil (UCO), which is currently shipped to Durban and exported to Rotterdam where European refiners process it into SAF. With the ISCC Plus certification now in hand, Sasol can process this feedstock domestically at its Natref refinery and export the finished product directly to the EU market.

Sarushen Pillay, Sasol’s Vice President of Strategy and Technology, informed Reuters that the certification means Sasol will now be able to produce SAF in South Africa rather than simply supplying the raw materials for European producers to refine. The ISCC Plus standard — the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification — is the primary certification scheme recognised under the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and is essential for any SAF supplier seeking to access the European market.

TUV SUD, the German certification agency that granted the ISCC Plus accreditation, also certified sustainable chemicals produced at Sasol’s Secunda complex, expanding the scope of Sasol’s certified sustainable products beyond aviation fuel. This dual certification positions Sasol to serve EU demand across both the aviation and chemicals value chains.

Natref’s Transformation: From Crude Oil Refinery to Hybrid Bio-Refinery

Natref, South Africa’s only inland crude oil refinery, is at the centre of this transition. Located in Sasolburg in the Free State, the facility has operated since 1971 and currently processes 108,500 barrels per day. Sasol holds a 63.64% majority stake in the refinery, with the UK-based Prax Group acquiring TotalEnergies’ 36.36% stake through an agreement signed in late 2023.

The refinery is undergoing a conversion into a hybrid facility capable of processing both crude oil and bio-based feedstocks. Sasol originally estimated that bringing Natref into compliance with South Africa’s Clean Fuels II (CF2) specifications would require an initial investment of 9–11 billion rand ($478–584 million), though the company has since indicated that innovation and technology advances are enabling a reduced-cost hybrid refining solution. The environmental impact assessment for the Natref Hybrid Refinery Project outlines plans to reconfigure and upgrade existing infrastructure to process bio-based materials alongside crude oil.

The production ramp-up is ambitious but phased. Depconcludeing on customer demand, Natref is tarobtaining one to two million litres of SAF in 2026, approximately 16 million litres in 2027, and up to 100 million litres by 2030. When Sasol’s Secunda complex is included, the combined tarobtain reaches 200 million litres by 2030. News Central TV reported that the tarobtains align with the EU’s trajectory toward a 6% SAF blconcludeing ratio by 2030.

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The EU Market: Mandates, Shortages, and Opportunity

Sasol’s timing is shaped by two powerful forces converging on the European aviation fuel market: regulatory mandates and a geopolitical supply crisis.

The EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, part of the “Fit for 55” package, entered into force in early 2025 and requires fuel suppliers to blconclude a minimum 2% SAF into jet fuel at EU airports, rising to 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035, and 70% by 2050. A sub-mandate for synthetic e-fuels starts at 1.2% in 2030 and reaches 35% by 2050. All SAF supplied under the mandate must comply with sustainability and greenhoutilize gas emissions criteria set out in the Renewable Energy Directive. Carbon Direct noted that the financial impact of these mandates is significant, as the price gap between SAF and conventional fossil jet fuels remains wide.

As of 2024, SAF production represented only 0.53% of global jet fuel utilize, meaning a massive expansion of production capacity is required to meet the mandates. This supply-demand gap creates a significant commercial opportunity for producers like Sasol that can achieve certification and scale production before the market tightens further.

Compounding the mandate-driven demand is the immediate impact of the US-Israel-Iran conflict, which has severely disrupted global jet fuel supplies. The EU has been among the worst-hit regions, with skyrocketing prices and dwindling fuel stocks threatening airlines ahead of what could be a catastrophic summer tourism season. For Sasol, this crisis transforms what might otherwise be a medium-term strategic play into an urgent commercial opportunity.

Growing Fuel: The Anglo American and De Beers Partnership

Beyond utilized cooking oil, Sasol is building a longer-term feedstock strategy through a partnership with mining giants Anglo American and De Beers. In February 2025, the three companies signed a Joint Development Agreement at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town to assess the commercial viability of growing energy crops — specifically Solaris (a nicotine-free tobacco plant with high seed oil yield) and Moringa — to generate veobtainable oil for renewable fuel production.

De Beers is providing more than 20 hectares of former mining land on which the crops will be cultivated, with the resulting veobtainable oil processed at Sasol’s Natref refinery. ChemAnalyst reported that the partnership has the potential to generate up to 400 million litres of locally manufactured biodiesel for mining operations, with the feedstock also serving Sasol’s broader SAF portfolio.

The rationale extconcludes beyond fuel production. Growing biodiesel feedstock on degraded mining land contributes to land rehabilitation while creating employment opportunities in communities affected by mining. Anglo American’s Director of Projects and Development, Alison Atkinson, noted that while electrification and renewable energy solutions are advancing, liquid fuels will remain necessary in mining operations for years to come. Pillay described renewable diesel as transformative: a drop-in fuel that meets conventional diesel standards while significantly reducing greenhoutilize gas emissions.

The partnership addresses a critical challenge in SAF and renewable diesel production: feedstock availability. The Biobased Diesel publication noted that the supply of first-generation feedstocks like utilized cooking oil was already becoming constrained, hence Sasol’s focus on developing second-generation energy crop feedstocks grown on land unsuitable for food production.

The Carbon Elephant in the Room

Any discussion of Sasol’s green ambitions must confront the company’s environmental record. Sasol’s Secunda plant in Mpumalanga is widely considered the world’s largegest single site for greenhoutilize gas emissions. The company’s total emissions increased slightly in 2023 to over 64,000 kilotons of CO2, driven by higher production rates, process inefficiencies, and a shortage of natural gas. The Centre for Environmental Rights has described Sasol as revealing “no real signs of reforming dirty operations”, noting a two-decade record of failing to meet emissions tarobtains.

Sasol has set a tarobtain to reduce emissions by 30% from its 2017 baseline by 2030 and has articulated a 2050 net zero emissions ambition. However, achieving these tarobtains has become more complex after the company acknowledged it was falling back on coal after encountering obstacles in plans to pivot to natural gas and green hydrogen. Sasol CEO Simon Baloyi has signalled a greater emphasis on renewable energy procurement to counter the growing coal depconcludeence.

Academic researchers have warned that Secunda faces two fundamental challenges: its reliance on coal creates it one of the world’s most carbon-intensive production facilities, and converting the existing plant to sustainable feedstocks is not economically viable at the scale required for its core operations. Sasol has also notified major industrial customers that it will stop supplying natural gas from depleting Mozambican reserves by 2027, adding supply risk to the transition picture.

In this context, the SAF certification and the Anglo American partnership represent a tarobtained, asset-light approach to decarbonisation — one that leverages existing refinery infrastructure and available feedstocks rather than attempting a wholesale transformation of Sasol’s coal-based operations. It is a pragmatic step, but critics will rightly note that even at 200 million litres by 2030, SAF production represents a compact fraction of Sasol’s overall output and does little to address the tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 emitted annually from its core operations.

Sasol’s Fischer-Tropsch Heritage: An Unlikely Advantage

There is an irony in Sasol’s SAF ambitions. The company’s core competency — Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis, which converts carbon-based feedstocks into liquid fuels — was developed to turn coal into petrol under apartheid-era sanctions. Today, that same technology is finding new relevance in the energy transition. FT synthesis can also be applied to produce power-to-liquid (PtL) synthetic fuels applying green hydrogen and captured CO2, a pathway that the EU has identified as critical for long-term aviation decarbonisation.

Sasol has positioned its ecoFT subsidiary to commercialise PtL-SAF technology, including a memorandum of understanding with German aircraft manufacturer Deutsche Aircraft to advance certification of hydrogen-based synthetic jet fuels. While PtL remains far more expensive than HEFA (hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids) SAF produced from cooking oil and veobtainable oil, it represents a longer-term opportunity as the EU’s sub-mandate for synthetic e-fuels ramps up from 2030.

What Comes Next

Sasol has not specified when exports to the EU will launch, and the near-term production volumes — one to two million litres in 2026 — are modest by global standards. But the certification milestone is strategically significant. It positions Sasol as a potential SAF supplier to one of the world’s largest and most regulated aviation fuel markets at a moment when supply is constrained, mandates are escalating, and the geopolitical environment is creating urgency around energy diversification.

The path from here to 200 million litres by 2030 depconcludes on feedstock availability, refinery conversion progress, customer demand, and the regulatory trajectory of both the EU and South Africa’s own clean fuels framework. Whether Sasol can credibly balance its SAF ambitions against the enormous carbon footprint of its broader operations will remain a central question for investors, regulators, and environmental advocates alike.

For now, the certification marks a tangible step in Sasol’s effort to pivot — one refinery, one feedstock, and one product line at a time — from being Africa’s largegest industrial polluter toward becoming a meaningful participant in the global clean fuels transition.

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