Page 14 - DMEA Week 25 2021

DMEA TERMINALS & SHIPPING DMEA

Problem with gas turbine forces

shutdown at Skikda LNG plant

AFRICA SONATRACH, the national oil company more than half of 2020, powering down in Jan-
(NOC) of Algeria, reported at the weekend that uary for a scheduled two-month maintenance
it had taken the Skikda LNG plant offline on June programme and then extending the closure until
11. July following the discovery of damage to one of
In a statement, Sonatrach attributed the shut- the plant’s 14 turbines in February.
down to technical problems. “A technical issue Sonatrach opted last year to repair the tur-
occurred on June 11 at the Skikda LNG complex bine rather than replace it, as the replacement
and led to the shutdown of this complex,” it said. process would have kept the Skikda facility out
It then described the problem as “a sudden fail- of production for 18 months. It also sought to
ure of a gas turbine control mechanism”, but did compensate for the loss of the plant’s capacity by
not elaborate. increasing the volume of LNG exported from
For the time being, the plant will remain Arzew, the site of another gas liquefaction plant.
offline so that the NOC can carry out a thor- Even so, the extension of the maintenance pro-
ough inspection of the plant and carry out any gramme caused Algeria’s LNG exports to drop
necessary repairs, the statement said. It did not to 10.9mn tonnes in 2020, equivalent to just 43%
speculate as to when the facility, which processes of the 25.3 tpy operational export capacity of the
gas from the Hassi R’Mel fields, might resume Skikda and Arzew plants.
operations. According to S&P Global Platts, Algeria has
The Skikda plant, located on Algeria’s north- already exported some 6.22mn tonnes of LNG so
ern coast, is capable of turning out 4mn tonnes far in 2021. This is equivalent to 50% of the coun-
per year (tpy) of LNG. It remained offline for try’s total nameplate capacity, Platts reported.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 24•June•2021