Page 11 - AfrOil Week 25 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Tatneft head discusses plans to resume

work in Libya’s Ghadames, Sirte basins

LIBYA NAIL Maganov, the CEO of Tatneft (Russia), Tatneft’s expertise in the areas of refining, man-
met with representatives of Libya’s National Oil ufacturing and renewable energy projects. The
Corp. (NOC) last week to discuss his company’s Russian company’s experience in renewables
plans for resuming work at fields in the North could help Libya use alternative energies to
African state. power oil and gas operations, he said.
During a meeting with Mustafa Sanalla, Tatneft is based in the Russian internal repub-
the chairman of NOC, Maganov indicated lic of Tatarstan and is controlled by the admin-
that Tatneft was eager to move ahead with the istration of the republic. The firm obtained a
exploration of its fields in the Sirte and Ghad- concession for a field in the Ghadames basin,
ames basins. The Russian company is ready to which is believed to contain more than 3.5bn
join forces with NOC on these projects, he said, barrels of oil in recoverable reserves, in 2005.
according to a report from Petroleum Africa. It then signed production-sharing agreements
The two sides do not appear to have made (PSAs) for three more fields in the Ghadames
any concrete plans for upstream operations and Sirte basins in 2006.
yet. However, Maganov and Sanalla did discuss After carrying out some exploration work at
plans for co-operation on several fronts, includ- these fields, the company suspended its activi-
ing capacity-building and training. The Tatneft ties in 2011, pending a resolution of the Libyan
head said that his company was willing to con- civil war. It attempted to return in 2014 so that it
vene workshops at the Oil Institute for Rehabili- could collect seismic data from a 200-square km
tation and Training in Tripoli. He noted that the area in Ghadames but soon departed because
workshops would allow NOC’s engineers and of a deterioration in security conditions. Sub-
technicians to learn from Tatneft’s experience sequent attempts to resume exploration work
in multiple areas – including dual production, do not appear to have made much headway.
which involves the extraction of hydrocarbons Nevertheless, Tatneft representatives have said
from multiple formations via a single well. repeatedly that the company is committed to
The NOC chief also expressed interest in remaining active in Libya. ™

Problem with gas turbine forces

shutdown at Skikda LNG plant

ALGERIA SONATRACH, the national oil company
(NOC) of Algeria, said at the weekend that it had
taken the Skikda LNG plant offline on June 11.
In a statement, Sonatrach attributed the shut-
down to technical problems. “A technical issue
occurred on June 11 at the Skikda LNG complex
and led to the shutdown of this complex,” it said.
It then described the problem as “a sudden fail-
ure of a gas turbine control mechanism”, but did
not elaborate.
For the time being, the plant will remain
offline so that the NOC can carry out a thor-
ough inspection of the plant and carry out any The Skikda plant can turn out 4mn tpy of LNG (Photo: Altrad)
necessary repairs, the statement said. It did not
say when the facility, which processes gas from per year (tpy) of LNG. It remained offline for
the Hassi R’Mel fields, might resume operations. more than half of 2020, powering down in Jan-
The Skikda plant, located on Algeria’s north- uary for a scheduled two-month maintenance
ern coast, is capable of turning out 4mn tonnes programme.

Week 25 23•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11