Algeria’s national oil and gas company Sonatrach is planning to tender the contract to build the planned Tiaret Export Refinery during 2018, according to industry sources.

“The tender of the Tiaret project has been scheduled for 2018,” said one source. “It will follow the tender of the Hassi Messaoud Refinery.”

The Tiaret Export refinery has an estimated budget of $2.5bn.

It will be located around 270km south-west of Algiers, near the Hauts Plateau mountains.

The refinery will process Saharan Blend crude and is part of a larger scheme to increase Algeria’s total refinery capacity.

Under current plans, the Tiaret refinery is expected to produce 2.7 MTPA of diesel, 1.4 MTPA of gasoline, 300,000 tonnes of naptha, 280,000 tonnes of LPG and 93,000 tonnes of bitumen.

The Tiaret Export Refinery project was originally announced in 2013 as part of a series of five planned refineries.

These included the Biskra Refinery and the Hassi Messaoud Refinery.

Sonatrach has prequalified EPC contractors for the $2.5bn Hassi Messaoud Refinery, and is currently preparing to issue the invitation to bid (ITB).

Front end engineering design (feed) for the Biskra refinery has been completed, but the project is now on hold.

The other two refineries are also on hold and have not seen feed contracts awarded.

Industry sources say that Sonatrach still expects to build all five refineries at some point though there is no timeframe for construction.