Neptune Energy announced a major milestone for the Touat gas facility in Algeria, with day-to-day operations having been formally passed to Groupement Touat Gaz (GTG).

Operation of the facility has been carried out by contracting company, Técnicas Reunidas (TR), since gas export began in September 2019. Operational handover was dependent upon the signing of the Performance Acceptance Certificate (PAC) between GTG and TR, which took place on 24 June.

GTG is staffed by Neptune Energy and Sonatrach secondees who bring together decades of operational experience in Europe and Algeria.

Neptune Energy’s Vice President for North Africa Asia Pacific, Philip Lafeber, said: “The Touat plant continues to operate well, emphasising the growing importance of the North Africa business in Neptune’s geographically-diverse and gas-weighted portfolio.”

Director General at GTG, Ian Conacher, added: “We have built the right team to deliver operations at Touat.

”TR played a key role in enabling first gas export and ramping up the plant to plateau and I would like to thank them for their efforts at site. I look forward to continuing to work with the excellent GTG team to maintain solid production levels from Touat as we take over the operator role.”

The Touat facility is located around 1,400 kilometres southwest of Algiers and close to Adrar, comprising 19 development wells, a gas treatment plant for gas and stabilised condensate with a gathering network and export pipelines. The facility achieved plateau production in April 2020.

Production from Touat will represent around nine percent of Algeria’s total gas exports and will be in production for more than 20 years.

GTG consists of Neptune Energy Touat (65%) and Sonatrach (35%).

About Neptune Energy Group

Neptune Energy is an independent global E&P company with operations across the North Sea, North Africa and Asia Pacific. The business had production of 144,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019 and 2P reserves at 31st December 2019 of 633 million barrels of oil equivalent. The Company, founded by Sam Laidlaw, is backed by CIC and funds advised by Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners.