UPDATE 1-Sasol says cash position positive, capex down 35 pct

* Sees H2 and FY operating loss at chemical cluster

* To reduce CTL carbon footprint by 20 pct by 2020

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JOHANNESBURG, June 30 (Reuters) - Sasol (SOLJ.J), the world's largest maker of motor fuel from coal, said on Tuesday its cash position was strong after cutting costs, but capital expenditure would fall 35 percent over the next three years.

Sasol's Chief Financial Officer Christine Ramon said in a statement the petrochemicals group growth projects would not be affected, even though capital expenditure would be cut to 15 billion rand ($1.95 billion) per year.

"Most of the capex reductions apply to numerous smaller projects ranging up to 1 billion rand ... these capital reductions will not affect our pipeline of growth projects, where our pre-investment studies continue unabatedly," she said.

Sasol said earlier this month it expected full-year earnings to fall by up to 50 percent on lower oil and chemical prices.

The company said on Tuesday it remained cautious on the short-term outlook for oil prices, but added that it sees them rising back to marginal cost of production in the medium term.

Ramon said that while the company expects group production volumes to rise, boosted by the ramp-up of its Oryx gas-to-liquids joint venture in Qatar, production of coal-to-liquids (CTL) at its South African synthetic fuels unit was seen falling 4 percent compared with the previous year.

"We expect an operating loss from our chemical cluster for the second half and for the full 2009 financial year," she said.

Sasol said sampling coal for the proposed Mafutha CTL project in South Africa would start before the end of 2009.

In the long term, the company plans to reduce its carbon footprint at its CTL ventures by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent by 2030. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak)