Algeria’s In Amenas gas plant, which was hit by a terrorist attack in January 2013, is set to finally see the third of its 3 bcm/year trains restart “in the coming days,” the project’s director general Kamel Aoues says. An initial “stabilization phase” will see output of 2-3mn m³/day (0.7-1.1 bcm/year on an annualized basis, that is to say around a third of the train’s capacity), with output ramping up to 9mn m³/day (3 bcm/year) capacity “within 10 days or so,” he tells state news agency APS. Repairs, led by UK-based firm Petrofac, cost $80mn, according to the plant’s operations director Said Oumeddour.
Latest production figures from Norway’s Statoil, which operates the plant in a JV with BP and Algerian state firm Sonatrach, indicate that the two operating trains continued to run flat out at their 6 bcm/year capacity in Q2. Mr Aoues says the start-up of Train 3 will initially be used to give the other trains a rest for maintenance before overall output ramps up to full 9 bcm/year capacity from the fourth quarter this year. (CONTINUED - 1221 WORDS)
