In Salah Gas JV brings Algeria’s Southern Fields project online

In Salah Gas, a joint venture (JV) between Sonatrach, BP and Statoil, has reported the start-up of its Southern Fields gas project in Algeria.

The JV began production in 2004 from Krechba, Teguentour and Reg fields in the north of the area.

As part of the Southern Fields project, which covers an area of 2,000km², four dry gas fields including Gour Mahmoud, In Salah, Garet el Befinat and Hassi Moumene would be developed.

The project’s scope also includes a new 500 mmscfd gas dehydration central processing facility adjacent to Hassi Moumene, brownfield modifications to existing processing facilities at Reg, Teg and Krechba.

Other developments will include 150km of carbon steel export pipelines, 160km of 13% chrome corrosion resistant alloy infield flowlines in addition to the drilling and tie in the 26 new wells.

Once the wells in the Hassi Moumene and Garet el Befinat field become operational over the next two months, production would be increased to 14.1 million m³ per day.

From the Southern Fields, Statoil is expected to produce around 22 000 equity barrels oil equivalents per day in 2016.

Statoil Development and Production International executive vice president Lars Christian Bacher said: "Through the startup of In Salah Southern Fields we are capturing value from existing positions as part of the strategy to shape our next generation portfolio.

"Our current production of 50,000 equity barrels oil equivalents per day from Algeria is profitable even at today’s price level."

With the development of the Southern Fields, production is expected to be maintained at nine billion m³ per annum.

The JV partners of In Salah Gas project are Sonatrach (35%), BP (33.15%) and Statoil (31.85%).

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Image: The In Salah Southern Fields project in Algeria. Photo: Courtesy of Statoil.