French Firm to Invest $1.5 Billion in Algerian Ethane Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--France's Total and Algeria's national energy company Sonatrach signed an agreement in Algiers in early December to jointly develop a $3 billion petrochemical project. Total has committed to more than $1.5 billion of investment into the project.

Total's President Christopher de Margerie said at the signing ceremony that with more than $1.5 billion of the investment, Total will hold 51% of the project's shares. Sonatrach will hold 49%. The project marks Total's entry into Algeria's petrochemical industry.

According to an announcement by Total, the two parties will jointly build a 1.4 million-ton-per-annum ethane plant in Arzew, Algeria. The cracking unit at the plant will treat 1.4 million tons per year of natural gas from a natural gas field in southern Algeria. The chemical plant would produce 1.1 million tons of ethylene every year to be used to make 800,000 tons of polyethylene and 550,000 tons of single ethylene glycol.

It is also reported that most of the products from the plant will be exported. Only a small portion is intended to be sold locally.

Regarding the ethane plant, Total and Sonatrach signed a memorandum as early as summer 2007. Algeria is France's key trade partner in Africa. The trade volume in the first 10 months of 2007 between the two countries amounted to $7.46 billion.

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