(Ecofin Agency) - Statoil has announced that its Salah Gas asset in Krechba, Algeria was struck by explosive weapons on Friday morning. “Statoil is working on getting an overview of the situation, but has so far no information about anybody being injured during the attack,” the company said.

Statoil which operates the In Salah dry gas fields alongside BP and Sonatrach added that its partners in Hassi Messaoud have gathered its emergency response organization in Stavanger.

The In Salah Gas joint venture involves the development of seven gas fields in the southern Sahara, 1,200km south of Algiers and it is the biggest dry gas project in Algeria.

According to LNG World news, this attack is not the first on Statoil’s facility in the country. On January 16, 2013 the In Amenas facility was also attacked by terrorist resulting in the death of 40 people, five of which were Statoil workers.

Algeria was the world’s first LNG producer in 1964 with four liquefaction units situated at Arzew and Skikda, with a capacity to process 44 Bcm/y of natural gas.

Anita Fatunji