Ramping up in the desert: Algeria awards contracts.
Algeria doles out $1.25bn in work
Algerian state energy group Sonatrach awarded contracts worth a total of 116 billion dinars ($1.3 billion) over the weekend to build treatment facilities at one of its biggest gas fields.
Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Saturday Algeria would increase gas exports by 30 billion cubic metres to 85 billion a year in the next five years.
Japanese engineering firm JGC and a consortium of Swiss-based group ABB and Algeria's Sarpi will build the installations at Gassi Touil.
JGC won a 100 billion dinar deal for the procurement and construction of gas treatment facilities.
Under the 42-month contract, JGC will build infrastructure and a gathering center for 54 wells in seven fields, Sonatrach said in a statement on its Web site.
It awarded a second contract worth 16 billion dinars to the ABB-Sarpi consortium to build a gas-gathering plant and metering stations in the Haoud Berkaoui area.
The 32-month contract involves building facilities to gather all associated gas in Haoud Berkaoui and transport it to a treatment centre in Guellala, Sonatrach said, according to a Reuters report.
It also includes work at production centres in Haoud Berkaoui, Benkahla and Guella.