Fire at Algeria's Skikda refinery under control, says minister

A fire that broke out in an idle reforming unit undergoing maintenance at Algeria's Skikda oil refinery has been brought under control with no impact to the plant's operations, the energy minister said on Tuesday.

The incident resulted in injuries to nine workers, the state news agency quoted minister Mohamed Arkab as saying.

State-owned Sonatrach operates four LNG production facilities - three at Arzew and one at Skikda - with a total capacity of 24.7 million mt/year.

Algeria is a major crude oil and natural gas producer in Africa and has been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) since 1969, about ten years after it first began producing crude oil.