In Amenas Train 3 'To Restart Next Month'
Sonatrach CEO Amine Mazouzi said that Train 3 of southern Algeria’s In Amenas gas complex will be back in operation in April 2016, two months earlier than an initially set deadline, reported the state-run Algerian Press Service (APS) on February 29.
The train, one of three, has been out of action since being damaged in a terror attack by Islamist militants in January 2013 in which 40 staff – mostly foreigners – were killed. A spokesman for Statoil told Natural Gas Africa on March 1: “We are aiming at opening Train 3 within the next few months.”
In Amenas – sometimes known as Tiguentourine – is located 810 miles from Algiers and 40 miles from the Libyan border. It is jointly operated by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algerian state-owned Sonatrach. A similar joint venture also operates the In Salah field complex some 690 miles from Algiers.
Each of the two gas-condensate field complexes were designed to produce 9bn m3/yr of gas: In Salah began production in July 2004, followed by In Amenas in 2006. All the gas is supplied to Sonatrach and piped north, either for export by pipe or as LNG, or for use on the domestic market.
Last month In Salah’s southern gas fields started up, which BP said would enable the In Salah complex to maintain production at 9bn m³/yr, because the new fields will produce 5.15bn m3 (14.1mn m3/d) once ramped up later this year. Statoil says that In Salah Gas has estimated recoverable reserves of 159bn m3 (5.7 tn ft3).
In its report, APS put current In Amenas average gas production at 5.8bn m3/yr (16mn m3/d). Its proximity to the Libyan border remains a security concern. Last month APS quoted Algeria’s defence ministry as saying that an armed "terrorist" on a motorbike was arrested on February 6 in the area.
Algerian newspaper Liberté reported in mid-February that the national gendarmerie had set up 100 new surveillance posts along the Algerian-Libyan border from Ouargla, not far from In Amenas, all the way south to Tamanrasset to stem the risk of infiltration by armed militants.
Former energy minister Yousef Yousfi in late 2014 had forecast that the In Amenas complex would be fully operative again by early 2015.
Mark Smedley