Sonatrach to import 60.000 tons of diesel fuel

Sonatrach announced the opening of an international tender to import 60.000 tons of diesel fuel.

It is the second time in which Algeria declared an international tender to import diesel since the beginning of 2011, after importing 30.000 tons of diesel last January to cover the deficit worsening in the supply of diesel in Algeria which noticed an increase in its consumption at a rate of more than 10% annually since 2002, because the government does not impose restrictions on imports of cars powered by diesel and delayed new projects to increase domestic refining capacity, while the local consumption increased from 3.6 million tons in the beginning of the past decade to about double the quantity currently.

The bill of Algeria’s imports of diesel reaches $300 million, the equivalent of 100.000 tons during the last five years which knew a huge explosion in the volume of cars imports and vehicles powered by diesel, and the high number of infrastructure projects, transport, construction, irrigation and agriculture, which require the consumption of additional amounts of diesel.

Sonatrach announced that it will continue to import additional quantities of diesel during the current and next years in order to cover the shortfall in domestic consumption of diesel, a deficit that will increase the frequency in launching projects of the third semester, which runs until 2014 and did not start in a good way until the end of the first semester of 2011.

Experts in industry said that Algeria has missed the opportunity to increase local production of refined materials, including diesel during the previous years as a result of a failed policy of the sector of energy and mining to increase the national refining capacity through launching projects of new refineries including the Tiaret refinery project (west of Algeria).

In spite of the non-application of severe restrictions in the field of environmental protection, the Ministry of Energy and Mines did not made real efforts to create new refineries, and failed to renew the old refineries with the exception of a simple unit that was build in Adrar (South of Algeria) by a Chinese company.

In 2009, Sonatrach and Chakib Khalil announced that it intends to increase its refining capacity to 40 million tons annually by 2016 from 26 million tons currently.

Algeria has five old refineries built between 1961 and 1980 including Algiers refinery with a capacity of 60.000 barrels per day, Hassi Messaoud, which was built in 1964 (30.000 barrels/day), Arzew 1972 (60.000 b/day), Skikda 1980 (300.000 b/day),  Ain Aminas (70.000 b/day) stops working in 1987, Adrar 2007 (13.000 b/day).