Europeans win pipeline projects

25 February 2003
Naftal, the wholly-owned transportation division of state energy company Sonatrach, has awarded three contracts totalling $68 million to European companies as part of its programme to significantly expand the domestic petroleum product network. The awards were announced after bid prices were opened in early February. Each contract will take 20 months.

France's Entrepose Contractinghas been nominated for the contract to install two pumping stations and a dispatch centre on the pipeline transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the refining centre at Arzew to Tlemcen in the far west via the town of Sidi Bel Abbes. The French firm was the low bidder for the contract with a price of AD 1,718 million ($22.3 million), of which the foreign currency component is Eur 16.1 million ($17.4 million). It was followed by Belgium's Basse Sambrewith an offer price of AD 1,814 million ($23.6 million).

Italy's Bentinihas been selected for the second contract, which also involves the installation of two pumping stations and dispatching facilities on the petroleum line between Arzew and Remchi. The company was the lowest bidder at AD 1,784 million ($23.1 million), including a Eur 16.5 million ($17.7 million) foreign currency component. Entrepose Contracting was the second lowest bidder, with an offer price of AD 1,819 million ($23.6 million).

Basse Sambre has been nominated for the final contract, involving the expansion of the Skikda-El-Khroub LPG pipeline in the east of the country. The company quoted a price of AD 1,740 million ($22.6 million), with a foreign currency component worth Eur 16.5 million ($17.7 million). The contract involves the construction of two spherical LPG storage tanks at El-Khroub, each with capacity of 2,000 cubic metres (cm), in addition to the installation of two pumping stations and a dispatch centre.

The three selected companies all have a long history of working in Algeria. Bentini has been involved in developing the country's oil and gas infrastructure for more than a decade, while Basse Sambre has worked on a number of handling, storage and bottling plants. It is due to start work shortly on the construction at Arzew of three 100,000-cm liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tanks.

Entrepose has also worked on a number of Algerian projects and is nearing completion on one of its most important projects, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the MLN oil field development. It was awarded the $125 million contract, which includes infield oil gathering lines, an export pipeline and oil and gas treatment and stabilisation units, by the US' Burlington Resourcesin December 2001 (Oil & Gas, MEED Special Report, 24:1:03, page 30).

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