The joint venture partners behind the Timimoun field development in Algeria have awarded South Korea’s Samsung Engineering an $800m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build gas processing facilities.

The scope of works will include carrying out the EPC of a 180-kilometre pipeline and a central processing facility that will process 177 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas. The contract is lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) and completion is expected in 2017.

The joint-venture partners behind the gas field development include the state-owned oil company Sonatrach as well as France’s Total and Spain’s Cepsa. Timimoun is located 800km southwest of Algiers.

Algeria plans ramping up its gas operations in 2014. As well as non-associated fields such as Timimoun it also plans a shale gas licensing round sometime in the second half of the year.