Rachid Hachichi, CEO of Algerian state oil giant Sonatrach, told Algerian TV on 14 August that a long-stalled 5mn t/y (110,000 b/d) refinery slated for Algeria’s inland oil hub of Hassi Messaoud “will be relaunched in the coming days.” This comes as Sonatrach has reached an agreement with “the company charged with construction,” he says.
This is a reference to Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas which in January 2020 was awarded a $3.7bn EPC contract for the refinery in partnership with Korea’s Samsung Engineering (MEES, 10 January 2020). Work has yet to begin after Sonatrach stalled in a bid to cut costs (MEES, 26 May 2023). (CONTINUED - 195 WORDS)