Contracts awarded for Algerian gas plant

ESSEN, Germany, May 16 (UPI) -- German energy company RWE Dea announced Friday the signing of a $976 million contract to help build a natural gas plant in the Algerian desert.

The German oil and gas company is a member of a project consortium tasked with building export pipelines and associated infrastructure for the Reggane Nord gas processing plant in Algeria.

The terms of the contract call for completion of the facilities within three years.

"With the construction start of these facilities, we've achieved a very important milestone in this development project," Christoph Schlichter, a senior vice president for North American operations, said in a statement Friday. "We are pleased to be moving this project forward into the execution phase."

More than two dozen wells are planned during the initial drilling campaign for the facility. The company said the plant, once completed, with have a peak processing capacity of around 283 million cubic feet per day.

RWE Dea is a member of a consortium that includes Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach, Spanish energy company Repsol and Italy's Edison. There was no statement from other consortium members.

Algeria has the 10th largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe.

Terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country's In Amenas natural gas facility in January 2013, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead.