Sonatrach has shortlisted four companies – Technip, Sinopec, CB&I Lummus and Saipem with Chiyoda Corporation – for the front-end engineering design (FEED) study on its long-awaited Tiaret refinery, now planned to produce 15m t/yr of products. In a 19 October tender opening overseen by Sonatrach director-general Mohammed Meziane, the names of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bidders to revamp the Algiers refinery were also announced, representing progress in downstream vice president Abdelhafid Feghouli’s long-awaited plans to raise domestic refining capacity.