AfDB approves $75m loan for Tunisia gas project

Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (ETAP) has secured a $75m corporate loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for its South Tunisian Nawara gas project.

The project includes the construction of gas transportation and treatment facilities to bring stranded and associated gas from the south of Tunisia to market.

The development will feature a central processing facility (CPF), which will collect gas received from the Nawara field to be compressed before transporting through the gas pipeline for the commercial gas and the Trapsa oil pipeline for the condensates.

Plans also include a 370km pipeline for rich gas, condensates and commercial products with a design capacity of 10 million cubic metres a day and a gas treatment plant that will be built on the coast in the Ghannouch industrial area near Gabès.

ETAP is developing the project in a joint venture with OMV Austria subsidiary OMV Tunisia.

Upon completion, the project will help reduce gas imports and increase hydrocarbon exports in the country. Tunisia generates over 90% of its energy from gas-fired power generation and more than 50% of the gas used is imported through gas pipelines. Tunisia has already reached its production limits and the Nawara project is expected to overcome its energy deficit.

AfDB said that Tunisia will be the major shareholder of the project, which will help it to strengthen its macroeconomic resilience and add value to its natural resources.