Algeria's In Salah Ramps Up
Algeria’s In Salah gas joint venture is back producing at its contractual level of about 9bn m³/yr following recent years in which its production fell to 8.3bn m³/yr, its CEO Maazou Slimane told state news agency APS on July 23, noting that the complex accounts for 10% of Algeria's gas production.
In Salah’s chief said its complex of fields, some 1,200 km south of Algiers in the Sahara, had increased production to 25mn m³/d (equivalent to 9.1bn m³/yr) from 14mn m³/d before March 2016, thanks to the start-up this April of the Hassi Moumen field following its $1.3bn development. He expects production to reach 27mn m³/d (9.85bn m³/yr) in September.
Hassi Moumen is among a handful of In Salah 'southern fields' from which initial production was announced by BP in February 2016.
The In Salah production sharing contract extends to 2027, with earnings allocated 51% to Sonatrach, 25% to BP and 24% to Statoil, according to APS. Investment in the joint venture is funded 35% by Sonatrach, 33.15% by BP and 31.85% by Statoil.
Slimane also said that the number of foreign workers at the complex would be reduced by 40% between now and the end of 2016. The reduction was decided by In Salah’s three partners as a cost-saving measure, in view of the decline in oil prices and the higher salaries of expatriates, but he added that it also followed completion of recent major work.
BP and Statoil temporarily withdrew all foreign staff in mid-March 2016 following an unsuccessful missile attack by militants at the complex, but many later returned. The In Salah venture currently employs 1,800 staff, of whom 400 are foreigners, the APS report said.
Separately, Kamel Aoues, CEO of the In Amenas joint venture (also comprising Sonatrach, BP and Statoil) told APS July 23 that gas compressor Train 3 will return to service within a few days. In Amenas has capacity to produce 9bn m³/yr at full capacity but has produced at about two-thirds of that since the destruction of the train in a militant attack in January 2013 which left 40 workers dead. The restart of train 3 was originally due in April 2016.
A Statoil investigation team at In Amenas plant on April 16 2013 following the militants' attack three months earlier (Photo credit: Statoil)
In Amenas train 3 would initially start at 2-3mn m³/d, said Aoues, but return to its full 9mn m3/d (3.3bn m3/yr) capacity by the end of this year. In Amenas is in the Illizi Basin of south eastern Algeria, so relatively close to the Libyan border. When fully producing again, In Amenas will also provide about 10% of Algeria's gas production.
Mark Smedley