GE To Supply Turbo Compressors For El-Merk Processing Plant
GE Oil and Gas has won a $100mn contract to supply Petrofac with turbo compression equipment for Groupement Berkine’s El-Merk central processing facility (CPF) in Algeria, GE said on 26 April. The facility, located in the Berkine Basin, is expected to start production in late 2011, and will serve as a production hub for the region, handling hydrocarbons from Block 208 as well as the unitized EMK field that straddles Block 405a. It will have an initial capacity of 98,000 b/d of crude oil, 28,800 b/d of condensate and 31,000 b/d of LPG. GE will provide three turbo-compressors for gas injection and two turbo-compressors for gas residue service, as well as three motor-compressors for gas booster services and three for associated gas services. GE will also provide local support and maintenance to the facility through its ALGESCO joint venture with Sonatrach and Algeria’s state gas and electricity company Sonelgaz. Such services will be provided via ALGESCO’s new $36mn Boufarik service center, which will open in the third quarter of 2010.
The El-Merk facility is considered a key project for Algeria’s hydrocarbon industry, having been delayed since 2007 due to a number of commercial disputes. Petrofac won the $2.2bn contract in March 2009, while a consortium made up of Zurich-based ABB, Egypt’s Petroject and Algeria’s Sarpi won a $673mn contract to provide collection networks and services (MEES, 16 March 2009). Groupement Berkine, a joint venture between Algeria’s state-owned national oil company Sonatrach and US-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, produces roughly one quarter of the country’s daily oil production, or 250,000 b/d, from a number of oil fields in Algeria.
Copyright MEES 2010.
