The company was formed in 1950 in Sasolburg, South Africa, and built on processes that German chemists and engineers first developed in the early 1900s (see coal liquefaction).

[8] South Africa has large deposits of coal, which had low commercial value due to its high fly ash content.

If this coal could be used to produce synthetic oil, petrol, and diesel fuel, it perhaps would have significant benefit to South Africa.

He completed his doctoral thesis from the Imperial College of Science in London on The Low-Temperature Carbonisation of South African Coal.

In 1927, a white paper from the government was issued describing various oil-from-coal processes being used overseas and their potential for South Africa.

After World War II, Anglovaal bought the rights to a method of using the Fischer–Tropsch process patented by M. W. Kellogg Limited, and in 1950, Sasol was formally incorporated as the South African Coal, Oil, and Gas Corporation (from the Afrikaans of which the present name is derived: Suid-Afrikaanse Steenkool-, Olie- en Gas Maatskappy), a state-owned company.

[14] Working with Fifth Dimension, Sasol developed a virtual reality technology to help train continuous miner operators in a 3D environment in which various scenarios can be simulated, including sound, dust and other signs of movement.

Sasol now sells an extensive range of fertilizers and explosives to local and international markets, and is a world leader in its low-density ammonium nitrate technology.

Some of the main products produced are diesel, petrol (gasoline), naphtha, kerosene (jet fuel), liquid petroleum gas (LPG), olefins, alcohols, polymers, solvents, surfactants (detergent alcohols and oil-field chemicals), co-monomers, ammonia, methanol, various phenolics, sulphur, illuminating paraffin, bitumen, acrylates, and fuel oil.

They include hot-melt adhesives, car products, microchip coatings, printing ink, household and industrial paints, mobile phones, circuit boards, transport fuels, compact discs, medical lasers, sun creams, perfumes and plastic bottles.

Outside South Africa, the company operates chemical businesses based on backward integration into feedstock and/or competitive market positions for example in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

[7] Operating Business Units comprise the mining division and exploration and production of oil and gas activities, focused on feedstock supply.

In addition, this cluster oversees Sasol's international GTL (gas to liquids) ventures in Qatar, Nigeria and Uzbekistan.

The chemicals business is divided into two niche groupings; Base Chemicals, where its fertilisers, polymers and solvents products lie, and performance chemicals, comprising key products which include surfactants, surfactant intermediates, fatty alcohols, linear alkyl benzene (LAB), short-chain linear alpha olefins, ethylene, petrolatum, paraffin waxes, synthetic waxes, cresylic acids as well as high-purity and ultra-high-purity alumina and a speciality gases sub-division.

Outside South Africa, the chemical businesses are operated based on backward integration into feedstock and/or competitive market positions.

The U.S. Gulf Coast's robust infrastructure for transporting and storing abundant, low-cost ethane was a key driver in the decision to invest in America."

[39]: 166 [40]: 75  It was built as a joint venture between the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), National Iranian Oil Company and Compagnie Française des Petroles (Total) with financing by the Rembrandt Group, Volkskas and SA Mutual.

[42] One of few inland refineries in South Africa,[39]: 166  Natref's capacity in 2017, stood at 108,500 barrels per day of crude oil.

Some of the products produced from the refinery are diesel, petroleum, jet fuel, LPG, illuminating paraffin, bitumen and sulfur.

[43][44] In 2009 Sasol agreed to pay an administrative penalty of R188 million as part of a settlement agreement with the Competition Commission of South Africa for alleged price fixing, in which a competitor alleged that Sasol was abusing its dominance in the markets for fertilisers by charging excessive prices for certain products.

[45] Sasol also had to pay a €318 million fine to the European Commission (EC) in 2008, which is about R3.7 billion, for participating in a paraffin wax cartel.

[48] A $4 billion cost and schedule overrun at Sasol's Lake Charles project resulted in the resignation of the joint CEOs in October 2019.

Adverse weather, poor subsurface conditions, and a "culture of fear" which undermined transparent reporting, were cited as contributing reasons for the over-runs.

Sasol's Secunda CTL plant is, as of 2020, the world's largest point source of greenhouse gas, at 56.5 Mt/a CO2,[54] a status which persists during the 2020s, with the complex producing more carbon dioxide than the country of Portugal at the close of 2023.

[57][58] Shareholders and environmentalists doubt that Sasol will meet its goals of 30 per cent fewer emissions by 2030, and net zero by 2050, which may lead to the Secunda complex being shuttered.

[53] By 2030, the company aims to lower Secunda coal volume output by 25 per cent in aid of its commitment to decarbonisation.