17-05-08 OPEC-member Algeria will increase its oil refining capacity to 50 mm tpy by 2014 from 22 mm tons currently, Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said.
In a speech at a conference on oil refining read out by the Energy and Mines Ministry Secretary-General Faycal Abbas, Khelil said the goal would be reached by building new refineries and renovating existing ones. Expressed in bpd, the increase would take Algerian capacity to more than 1 mm bpd from 450,000 bpd currently.

Khelil was citing projects such as a condensate refinery that was expected to be operational by the end of 2008 with a capacity of 5 mm tons and a second refinery scheduled to start production in 2014 with a capacity of 15 mm tons. The first refinery will be built at the coastal town of Skikda while the second will be located in Tiaret southwest of Algiers, said Abdelhafid Feghouli, vice-president of downstream activities at state energy group Sonatrach.
"The increase of refining capacity to meet growing energy demand is a priority for the country," Feghouli was quoted as saying.

Algeria also will spend $ 4.0 bn to implement a rehabilitation programme of its existing refineries by 2012, said Akli Remini, chief executive of the state oil refining company NAFTEC, a Sonatrach subsidiary. The work would be designed to raise capacity of existing refineries in Algiers, Arzew and Skikda to 27 mm tpy from 22 mm tons, he said.
Oil prices shot to a record high near $ 128 a barrel and have risen six-fold since 2002.