The $70 million project involves the installation of a 1,600-tonne module, comprising a compressor driven by a single 20-MW gas turbine and related facilities, onto the Miskar platform, which will require modifications. The turbine will be supplied by the UK's Rolls Royce Energy Systems, and Siemens Demag Delaval Turbomachineryof Germany will manufacture the compressor package.

The compressor will be operational in 2004, allowing the plateau production of 200 million cubic feet of gas a day to be maintained for a further five years and boosting the total recovery of gas from the field. BG estimates that the Miskar field will produce more than 700,000 million cubic feet of sales gas during its lifetime (MEED 26:5:00).

The project forms part of a $120 million investment plan for the Miskar field announced by BG in May 2000. BG has already invested over $600 million in the field, which it operates. Miskar supplies about 60 per cent of Tunisia's total daily gas demand. The field's output is processed onshore at BG's Hannibal plant.

BG recently announced that it had made a new oil discovery at the Hasdrubal Southwest-1 well in the offshore Amilcar permit where the Miskar field is located. BG plans to develop the Hasdrubal oil and condensate field and bring it into operation in 2006 (MEED 9:8:02).