The project, also known as La CAMEL or Arzew – GL4Z, involved four participants – Conch International Methane, the Algerian Development Bank, National Society of Exploration and Exploitation of Oil in Algeria (SN Repal) and the French Bureau de Recherches Pétrolières (BRP), a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine. The plant was supplied gas via a 500 km pipeline.
The site for the plant was finalised in Arzew, located approximately 400 km (249 miles) west of Algiers. The first president of Algerian republic, Ahmed Ben Bella, laid the foundation stone for the world’s pioneering LNG plant, on 14 September 1962.
The field is not only the largest in Algeria, but also one of the largest in the world. In 1956, the enormous Hassi R’Mel gas field was discovered in Algeria, with gas production commencing in 1961. In the late 1950’s, a consortium of American oil companies experimented with transporting LNG on-board a ship for the first time. Natural Gas, which was considered an unwanted by-product of crude, was made monetizable when the first large-scale cryogenic liquefaction process was setup in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1941.
