(Bloomberg) -- Sasol Ltd. said capital costs at its Lake Charles chemicals project in Louisiana have increased once again, to as much as $11.8 billion, and the startup will be delayed by as many as five months.

• The previous cost estimate for the project, which will convert ethane into plastics and other products, was about $11.1 billion. Sasol cited “several factors within and beyond our control” for the revision.

Key Insights

• Lake Charles is Sasol’s largest project and will transform the South African company’s production mix once up and running. Yet it’s faced repeated setbacks, including a 25 percent cost hike in 2016 to $11 billion -- a price tag the then-chief executive officer called a “worst-case scenario.”
• Friday’s announcement will disappoint investors after the company said as recently as October that project costs were within market guidance.

Market Reaction

• Sasol shares sank as much as 5.7 percent on Friday and traded down 5.4 percent at 389.4 rand as of 10:13 a.m. in Johannesburg. It was the worst performer on the FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index.

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• Sasol also released a trading update on Friday, saying headline earnings, which exclude one-time items, probably rose as much as 34 percent in the six months through December from a year earlier.
• See key figures from Sasol’s trading statement here.

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