Skip to main content

Sulphur 419 Jul-Aug 2025

16 July 2025

Sonatrach awards Saipem phosphate project FEED contract

ALGERIA

Sonatrach awards Saipem phosphate project FEED contract

Saipem has won a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract from Sonatrach for an integrated phosphate fertilizer project in Algeria. The contract was awarded through a dual competitive process, enabling the design work to be conducted by both Saipem and a competitor company. Sonatrach will assess and compare the two FEED options from both parties, select the best technical and economic design, and then proceed with the direct award of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to execute the project.

The FEED contract covers front-end services for the complete engineering design of a new fertilizer complex. This includes phosphate mining infrastructure in the Bled El Hadba area, together with process and ancillary units supporting fertiliser production in the Oued Keberit area.

This is Algeria’s first integrated phosphate project encompassing both ore mining and fertilizer production. Once operational, the project will have the capacity to extract 10 million tonnes of phosphate rock and produce six million tonnes of phosphate fertilizers annually.

Latest in Africa

Dangote cleared of breaching fuel sulphur limits

A UK–based energy watchdog, the Impact Investigators Platform (IIP), has dismissed allegations that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery imported substandard gasoline into Nigeria, describing the claims as “technically inaccurate, commercially implausible, and unsupported by verifiable evidence.” The IIP said its independent assessment of shipping data, customs declarations, and refinery process documentation found no indication that the refinery imported or sold Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) with sulphur levels above Nigeria’s approved limit of 50 parts per million (ppm). The investigation followed media reports alleging that a vessel had delivered high-sulphur gasoline to the Dangote Refinery under the guise of locally refined products. However, the IIP clarified that the cargo in question was an intermediate feedstock , a raw material used for refining and not finished gasoline meant for retail.