One year after announcing the “completion” of a refinery expansion that former Sonatrach CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour said “should never have happened,” a 0.9mn t/y (20,000 b/d) addition to the 2.7mn t/y (58,000 b/d) Algiers refinery has fully started up – almost 10 years following the original contract award.
In contrast to Mr Ould Kaddour, who said building a new plant would have been cheaper than the expansion (MEES, 1 March 2019), new PM Abdelaziz Djerad hailed it a “real achievement.” Mr Djerad’s 2020 government action plan calls for increasing refining capacity to 35mn t/y by 2024 (MEES, 14 February). The Algiers refinery’s new 3.6mn t/y capacity brings Algeria’s overall capacity to 25.5mn t/y (549,000 b/d). The country also has a 5mn t/y (122,000 b/d) condensate splitter at Skikda. (CONTINUED - 348 WORDS)
