Algeria has 29 main oil, gas condensate and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipelines, covering a total distance of 16,200km, and with a total transportation capacity of 322 million tons of oil equivalent. By 2010, it plans to install ten additional main pipelines: six gas pipelines, two for LPG, and one each for condensate and crude. This will increase the total network length to 21,475km and its capacity to 415 million tons of oil equivalent.
As part of the programme, state energy company Sonatrach is due to issue three major tenders to increase the length of its gas pipeline network by more than 1,400km. The over $5 billion project covers the installation of 48-in diameter pipelines from the country’s central oil- and gasfields to gas processing and export facilities at Skikda and Arzew on the northern coast. The first engineering, procurement, and construction contract covers the construction of a 275-km pipeline from the Hassi R’Mel oil- and gas-gathering complex to Chaiba in the northwest, and a 310-km pipeline between Chaiba and the LNG terminal at Skikda. The package also calls for the construction of a 261-km road between Ain Djasser and El-Kala, and the installation of a major gas compression station at Chaiba.
Known as GK3, the pipeline will provide gas for export from the Skikda terminal, as well as feedstock for the Koudiat Edrouche power plant and the planned Galsi subsea export pipeline to Europe. The second pipeline deal, called GR4, involves the construction of a 532-km pipeline between the Rhourde Nouss oil- and gasfield, near the Libyan border, and Hassi R’Mel. The pipeline will transport new gas production from both Rhourde Nouss and the planned Gassi Touil mega gas development to the northwest. The third package covers the installation of a pipeline between Hassi R’Mel and the town of Sougueur, half way between Algiers and Oran. Known as GZ5, it will connect with the existing pipeline network at Sougueur before going on to the Arzew gas export terminals.
Sonatrach has prequalified 15 local and international contractors for the pipeline installation, including Amec Spie Capag, a part of France’s Entrepose Contracting, which is also prequalified in its own right; Bechtel and Wilbros, both of the US; UAE-based Petrofac International; Techint and Saipem, both of Italy; Stroytransgaz of Russia; India’s Punj Lloyd; a consortium of Dubai-based Dodsal with Italy’s Bonatti; Egypt’s Petrojet; the local Cosider with Germany’s Dorsch Gruppe; and the local Enac, also with Dorsch Gruppe.
In addition, eight companies have been shortlisted for the compressor package. They are Europe’s ABB, Amec Spie Capag, Bechtel, Entrepose, Petrofac, Saipem, Techint and Wilbros. Technical bids for each contract are likely to be submitted by the end of the year, with awards scheduled for early 2009.
