Attacked plant resumes production

Published on 25/02/2013 02:55

Algeria’s Tiguentourine gas plant has resumed some production, more than a month after dozens of foreign workers were killed in an Islamist attack there, the head of the state energy firm Sonatrach has said.

The gas facility operated by BP in partnership with Norway’s Statoil and Sonatrach had been closed since gunmen attacked it on 15 January and seized hundreds of hostages before the army stormed in four days later.

“It is a partial resuming of production … we will get three billion cubic metres per year,” Sonatrach chief executive Abdelhamid Zerguine said this weekend.

The plant produces about 9 billion cubic metres per year of gas, about 11.5 per cent of the country’s annual total.

Some 37 foreign hostages, and 29 rebels were killed during the assault on the plant 30 miles from the town of In Amenas.