22-12-08 Tunisia should become an exporter of propane during the first quarter of 2009, following development of the offshore Hasdrubal gas/condensate field, according to industry sources. Currently Tunisia imports butane, but does not export any LPG.
The Hasdrubal field is being developed jointly by UK-based BG Group and Tunisia's state oil company ETAP. Production from the field will be brought by subsea pipeline to an onshore terminal close to Sfax, where the gas stream will be separated into natural gas, propane, butane and condensate.

The propane and butane will then be transported 120 km to the Tunisian port of Gabes, initially by truck but then by pipeline, where new storage is under construction. Gabes is already used as an import terminal for butane.
Peak production from Hasdrubal should be reached in 2010 and is forecast to be about 90,000 mm tpy of propane and about 45,000 mm tpy of butane. The butane will be used internally to help meet domestic requirements, but there is insufficientdemand within Tunisia for the propane, which will be exported in coaster cargo lots.

Butane imports to come from Sonatrach only in 2009
In a separate development, trading sources said that all of Tunisia's butane imports in 2009 will be delivered by Algeria's state oil company Sonatrach from its own production, whereas in 2008 butane deliveries were split between Sonatrach and trading company Petredec.
Petredec reportedly sourced much of the butane bound for Tunisia from the French Mediterranean port of Lavera. Expectations that Petredec will not have a role in Tunisia's butane imports in 2009 has traders wondering what the impact of this change will be on butane supplies from Lavera.