Algeria - LPG Exports.

Sonatrach is a major exporter of LPG, now producing at the rate of 8.4m t/y and by end-1999 its capacity should reach 9m t/y. With the domestic market taking about 2.5m t/y, exports in 1999 should average more than 6.3m tons. Italy and Spain are the biggest importers of Algerian LPG.

Thanks to steady capacity expansions, exports have risen from about 4m tons in 1996. They will exceed 7m t/y by 2000, when Algeria's LPG production capacity should reach 9.6m t/y. Sonatrach is to build two new process trains at Bethioua, the main LPG producing complex, which will bring the capacity to more than 12m t/y by 2001/2.

The Oil & Gas Export Logistics: Sonatrach has built up a huge combination of export logistics since the 1960s. They include more than 12,500 km of internal and export pipelines for crude oil, oil products and gas liquids, compared to 11,400 km in 1994. These arteries are improving constantly and will reach 15,000 km by 2000. They will link the oil and gas fields to seven sea export terminals, including one in Tunisia, to the country's five refineries, and to Algeria's borders with Tunisia and Morocco. The TransMed gas pipeline from Hassi R'Mel to Italy passes through Tunisia and the Mediterranean, and the western pipeline to Spain which went on stream in late 1996 passes through Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Sonatrach has an impressive network of oil and gas storage facilities to service the domestic market. Its overseas marketing and trading units have storage facilities abroad, mostly leased.