Algeria completes oil refinery project

Algeria has completed work on a crude oil refining project in Hassi Messaoud, the largest oil city in the country, to pump 60,000 barrels per day. state-owned Sonatrach said today.

The statement stated that the CEO, Taoufik Hakkar, yesterday travelled to the southeastern city of Hassi Messaoud, and visited the project, which he said was now 99 per cent complete and able to process 60,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

The Hassi Messaoud field is considered the largest of its kind in the country. It was discovered by the French colonial authorities in 1956. Algeria nationalised it on 24 February 1971, during the era of the late President Houari Boumediene.

It has however required investment in recent years as its facilities have aged and needed modernisation to raise both production and reserves.

Algeria, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has a daily output of 1.013 million barrels per day, according to the reduction agreement within the framework of the OPEC+ alliance.

A few weeks ago, Sonatrach announced two oil discoveries in the southeast of the country, the first with the Italian Eni, with reserves estimated at 140 million barrels, and the second, with its own capabilities, whose reserves are close to one billion barrels.

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