EXCLUSIVE: Contractors to hand over Algeria gas field by end of August

15 July 2018
Operator Sonatrach recently held a ceremony to mark the start of gas production from the Alrar field

The joint venture (JV) - of UK-based Petrofac and Italy's Bonatti - executing the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works at the Alrar gas field in Algeria, is on course to hand over the project to the operator by August-end.

State-owned Sonatrach are the project operators. They marked the start of gas production from Alrar, in eastern Algeria close to the Libyan border, on 3 July.

“We [the JV] are targeting PAC by August-end,” a source working on the hand over said, referring to the Provisional Acceptance Certificate.

PAC can be defined as a project owner issuing an acceptance certificate to the contractor when the latter reaches the requirements of provisional acceptance (PA) criteria, in accordance with the contract’s terms and conditions.

Sonatrach awarded the EPC contract to the JV in 2013 for $650m.

The main scope of the contract was to add a new compressor station and revamp an existing one to boost the field’s production from 16 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) to 24.7 million cm/d.

The scope of work also included the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services for the development of new separation and booster compression facilities.

The Alrar gas field was explored in the early 1970s and developed in following years. The field came into production in 1987.

With this project, Sonatrach is aiming at maintaining the plateau production of this depleting field, and to compensate for the natural pressure drop of the field after years of production.

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