A large-scale LNG tanker has been successfully moored at the new jetty at the Algerian port of Skikda, state-owned Sonatrach said late March 11, part of an expansion of the port to allow Algeria to broaden its LNG marketing capabilities.

In a statement, Sonatrach said the Ougarta LNG tanker was moored at the jetty on March 9 followed by high-level tests to ensure reliable operation.

“This achievement reflects Sonatrach’s keenness to increase the loading capabilities at the port of Skikda,” it said.

Work to expand capacity at the port included replacing two LNG tanks with a new 150,000 cu m tank and construction of a new jetty to serve the 4.5 million mt/year Skikda LNG production facility.

The new jetty will enable the plant to maximize its production and enable large capacity LNG carriers of up to 220,000 cu m to load cargoes.

Up to now, Skikda LNG can only receive small LNG carriers able to load around 70,000 cu m of LNG in volume.

Sonatrach has said previously that this expansion would open up the potential for regular cargoes from Skikda to reach markets in Asia.

Because of the loading limitations, Skikda is currently used only to shuttle LNG to nearby southern European markets.

In 2023, Skikda supplied 27 cargoes of LNG carrying around 4 million mt of LNG mainly to markets in France, Italy, and Spain, but also the UK and Greece, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

In total, Algeria exported 13.2 million mt of LNG last year, including deliveries from the Arzew terminal.

Total capacity

Sonatrach operates four LNG production facilities — three at Arzew and the one at Skikda — with a total nominal capacity of 25 million mt/year.

However, the facilities operate below capacity, with Sonatrach working to return its two oldest LNG production facilities at Arzew to their design capacity with an upgrade project launched in 2020.

Arzew plants GL1Z and GL2Z, which started up in 1978 and 1981 respectively, have been operating below capacity due to bottlenecks.

Arzew is able to reach markets outside of Europe and last year exports were delivered to countries such as China, India, South Korea and Bangladesh.

It also supplies regular cargoes to Turkey under a long-term contract with Botas.

The expansion of its LNG export capabilities at Skikda comes as spot LNG prices continue to trade below $10/MMBtu.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the benchmark JKM price for delivery into Northeast Asia at $8.80/MMBtu on March 11.

Source: Platts