The Algerian/French Sonatrach Total Enterprise Polymères (STEP) joint venture has licensed technology from US process firm Honeywell UOP for a 565,000 t/y propylene plant to be built at Arzew on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast. Besides technology licensing, Honeywell will provide basic engineering design, equipment and catalysts for the plant, which will use catalytic dehydrogenation to convert locally produced propane into propylene. The STEP complex will also include a unit to convert propylene into polypropylene.
The STEP joint venture agreement is one of two deals signed between Sonatrach and Total last year with the French major estimating capex at $1.4bn. Sonatrach and Total at the same time also signed an agreement for a joint development of the Erg Issouane gas field on the TFT Sud license area, which will be tied into the nearby Tin Fouyé Tabankort (TFT) at an expected project cost of $400mn (MEES, 12 October 2018). (CONTINUED - 284 WORDS)