A new 4.5mn tons/year train at Algeria’s Skikda LNG plant is currently undergoing final tests and will “probably” be inaugurated on 24 February, according to Algeria’s state news agency APS. This ostensibly replaces 3mn t/y of capacity destroyed in a 2004 fire.

But start-up of the much-delayed 4.7mn t/y fourth train at the Arzew LNG plant is now unlikely before late-2013 at the earliest, MEES understands. Delays related to the project led UK-based services firm Cape to release several profit warnings during 2012, with the company adding that the “timely release of work packages” has not been happening. (CONTINUED - 849 WORDS)