Algeria to close down Skikda refinery for up to 6 months

Algerian state energy group Sonatrach will completely close its 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery at Skikda from July for up to six months to carry out improvement work, an Algerian energy official said on Wednesday.

• The work at Skikda, Algeria’s biggest refinery, will start at 2300 GMT on Wednesday, with a partial shutdown, and will then require a total shutdown starting in July, added the official.

• The energy official did not make clear at what point during July the total shutdown would begin.

• Sonatrach has been stepping up imports of refined products in the past few months to ensure it can keep the domestic market supplied during the refinery outage. Last month Sonatrach issued a tender to buy 180,000 tonnes of gasoil.

• Algerian energy sources told reporters in April that work had already begun at the Skikda refinery. This though was the first phase of the planned work and involved maintenance only, not improvements, with no impact on the refinery’s output.