Total, Algeria’s Sonatrach to start FEED for $1.4bn petchems project within months

LONDON (ICIS)–Total and Algeria’s energy major Sonatrach will launch within months the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for their planned $1.4bn petrochemical project in the North African country, the French major said on Friday.

The complex will include a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) feeding a 550,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant.

Sonatrach has a 51% stake at the joint venture, with Total holding the remaining 49%.

The French and Algerian energy majors first announced their intention to form a joint venture in 2016.

Total said with the project it was aiming to tap into Algeria’s rich natural gas reserves.

“The facility will valorise propane, produced in large quantities locally, by transforming it into PP, a plastic for which demand is growing strongly,” it said.

“It will supply in priority the local and Mediterranean demand and Total will be responsible for the commercialisation of the rest of the production in Europe, where it will leverage its market expertise to the benefit of both partners.”

Total’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, added that the project would complement its other natural gas-based project recently launched in the US Gulf Coast to tap into that country’s rich shale gas reserves.