RIYADH: Sonatrach, Algeria’s national oil and gas company, has relaunched the construction of its hydrocracker facility with an estimated budget of $3 billion, according to a MEED report.
Located in the country’s Skikda province, the facility will be executed under the engineering, procurement and construction model.
“This project is in its early stages. Around 10 EPC contractors have prequalified for this project. This includes contractors from China, South Korea and Europe,” an industry source told MEED.
The report further added that technical bids are expected to be submitted by the end of August and the contract will be awarded by December.
Egypt to work toward easing European gas crisis
Egypt is ready to play whatever role it can do to ease the European gas crisis, said the country’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Bloomberg reported.
El-Sisi said that the country is ready to export all the natural gas that it can produce from the Eastern Mediterranean, which could help ease the crisis.
Infinity to become Africa’s largest renewable company
Egypt’s Infinity Group is all set to become Africa’s largest renewable company as the firm along with Africa Finance Corporation, proceed to acquire Lekela Power.
The undisclosed deal is expected to close this year, The National News reported.
Founded in 2015, Lekela Power is Africa’s largest independent power producer.
According to the report, the acquisition includes Lekela’s 1-gigawatt portfolio of operational wind power projects in Egypt, Senegal and South Africa.
It also includes a 1.8-gigawatt pipeline of projects in development across Africa.
Freeport LNG shutdown reduced US export capacity
A fire that resulted in the shutdown of Freeport LNG’s natural gas liquefaction plant on June 8 reduced US export capacity by an estimated 2.0 billion cubic feet per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Due to the shutdown, the US benchmark Henry Hub natural gas spot price fell by $1.27 per million British thermal units to $8.16/MMBtu on June 9.
Since then, the Henry Hub price continued to decline to end the month at $6.54/MMBtu.
“We expect the Henry Hub natural gas spot price will continue to decline from its June average of $7.70/MMBtu to an average of $5.97/MMBtu in the H2 2022,” said US EIA in the report.
