BY DAVID WINNING
Beijing appears to be stalling a $5 billion-plusdeal with a South African petrochemicals company that would tap China'svast coal reserves to make synthetic fuels, while at the same timesecuring ways to acquire such technology domestically.
Johannesburg-based Sasol Ltd., which has several coal-to-liquid plantsoperating in South Africa and is the world leader in the technology,struck a deal in 2006 to study an 80,000-barrel-a-day plant in thenorthern Chinese region of Ningxia. Chinese leaders, however, have shownlittle inclination to approve Sasol's project and let constructionbegin, with the government's economic planning agency saying theproposed technology ...