The start-up of the onshore gas field, located between the towns of Timimoun and Adrar, comes less than nine years of securing approval of its development plan from the Algerian National Oil and Gas Development Agency (ALNAFT).
The production complex at the Algerian gas field has a capacity of nearly 5 million cubic meters of natural gas per day at plateau. Total with a stake of 37.75% jointly operates the field alongside Algerian national oil and gas firm Sonatrach (51%) and Spanish oil and gas firm Cepsa (11.25%).
Gas from the Timimoun field will be produced through 37 wells that are linked to a gas processing facility, which in turn, ties into the GR5 pipeline. The pipeline is used for delivering gas from southwestern Algerian gas fields to Hassi R’mel.
Under a marketing agreement, Sonatrach will be responsible for marketing all of the gas produced from the Timimoun field.
Total exploration & production president Arnaud Breuillac said: “The launch of Timimoun is a new step in the Group’s history in Algeria, where we are a long-term partner. Achieved within the planned budget, the project will contribute to Total’s production growth in 2018.”
In last December, Cepsa, Sonatrach, Total, and Alnaft signed a concession agreement under a new contractual framework for the Timimoun project development. They also signed a marketing agreement for the natural gas that will be produced at the field.
Although, Cepsa has been engaged in exploration and production activity in Algeria for more than 30 years, the start-up of a natural gas field is a first for it in the country.
With Sonatrach, Cepsa also operates the Rhourde el Krouf and Ourhoud oil fields in the Berkine basin in Algeria. Overall, the Algerian oil fields operated by Cepsa have a production over 130,000 barrels per day.
