North Africans press on with refinery plans 


The roster of North African refinery projects under consideration has undergone a few changes over the past year as policy-makers have been forced to reconsider plans. Most notably, Société Tunisienne de Raffinage (Stir) has gone back to the drawing board with its project to build a new plant at La Skhira. The Tunisians had appeared to have secured up to $2bn of financing from Qatar Petroleum International to construct a 120,000 b/d refinery using Libyan feedstock (AE 232/4). But Qatar appears to have quietly dropped its commitment to finance the project, and the authorities are assessing four rival schemes, including the construction of a new and probably smaller refinery at Bizerte.