Gassi Touil to be awarded soon

05 March 2004
Commercial bids for the giant Gassi Touil gas field development will be opened on 27 March, and the contract awarded the same day. Energy & Mines Minister Chekib Khelil, on a visit to London on 27 February, said that the successful bidder would be selected on price alone. A total of 13 companies and groups submitted technical proposals last March for the estimated $2,000 million project, which has been subject to severe delays and some confusion following the devastating earthquake last May, which affected the offices of the client, state energy company Sonatrach(MEED 23:1:04).

The project entails the development of an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) system using gas sourced from the six Gassi Touil fields, which contain total reserves of about 9 trillion cubic feet. The contract calls for the appraisal and development of the three undeveloped southern fields and the construction of infrastructure to transport gas from these and the already-developed northern fields to a liquefaction plant on the coast, which will be constructed as part of the project.

Also at the meeting, Khelil stated that a tender would soon be launched for the contract to replace the three LNG trains destroyed in an accident at the Skikda complex in January. Sonatrach is planning to replace the three trains, which had a combined output of 3 million tonnes a year (t/y), with a single new train with capacity of 4 million t/y. The three other trains at Skikda, not affected by the explosion, will soon resume operations (MEED 23:1:04).

Khelil declined to comment on a statement made in late February by Christophe de Margerie, head of exploration at Total, that the French company was looking to form a joint venture partnership with Sonatrach.

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