The Sonatrach group is carrying out the final tests before the commissioning of its new hydrocarbon processing center in Hassi Messaoud (wilaya of Ouargla), its CEO, Toufik Hakkar, announced on Wednesday.
This important center will have to produce 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day and nearly 2 million m3 of natural gas, coming from the fields located in the southern region of Hassi Messaoud, in particular the fields of Hassi Tarfa, Hassi Dzabat and Hassi Guettar, specified Mr. Hakkar in a statement to the press during an inspection visit of this project, reports the agency APS.
“We are in the final tests before the start of production”, declared the CEO of Sonatrach, stressing the importance of this “strategic” unit for the increase in production capacity of the national company.
This project, whose cost is estimated at more than a billion dollars, benefits from the recovery of flared gases which are sent to the Hassi Messaoud fields to separate condensates, LPG and natural gas, according to Mr. Hakkar. “Sonatrach invests significant sums for the recovery of flared gases and for their commercial development, while preserving the environment,” he said.
Project for the construction of a fourth LPG train
During this visit, the CEO of Sonatrach also inspected the project to build a fourth LPG train located at the Naili Abdelhalim industrial complex (ZCINA), near Hassi Messaoud, with a production capacity of 1,200 tonnes/ LPG day.
The realization of this new production train intended for the treatment of saturated gas to produce LPG and condensing in particular, cost nearly 200 million dollars, according to Mr. Hakkar.
This site, built in partnership with the Italian company Tecnimont, has a capacity of 8 million m3/day using associated gas from existing plants located near the ZCINA facility.
“The unsaturated gas, resulting from the treatment at the level of this train, is then redirected to the Hassi Messaoud fields and then injected to raise the efficiency of oil recovery”, explained the CEO of Sonatrach, judging the first tests carried out at the level of this structure “very encouraging”.
Present during the visit to this new LPG train, the CEO of Tecnimont, Alessandro Berlini, said he was “proud” of the result of a “very fruitful” cooperation between Tecnimont and Sonatrach, “Our teams have collaborated throughout the realization of this infrastructure in an efficient way, despite a very difficult period during the Covid-19 pandemic”, he underlined, expressing the hope that this project will constitute “the beginning of a great cooperation” with the Algerian company.
