Norwegian energy company Statoil said it was dispatching an emergency response team to Algeria following an explosion at one of its gas assets in the country.
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“This attempt had no impact on the installation or the production”, a statement by the Algerian state concern Sonatrach said, calling it a “failure”.
In January 2013 Islamist militants attacked a gas facility at In Amenas, in the southern Algerian Sahara desert.
A plant employee who did not wish to be named told AFP that the site is surrounded by a security fence and soldiers are permanently on guard.
Army reinforcements have been sent to the area from other regions, according to local security officials. The facility has been closed down, BP said.
“Statoil is working on getting an overview of the situation, but has so far no information about anybody being injured during the attack”, it said.
The central processing plant has been shut down as a safety precaution and all its staff in Algeria have been accounted for, BP said in an e-mailed statement on Friday. Norwegian energy company Statoil and its partners suspended work at the facility along the Libyan border for more than a year following the attack. Militants attacked an Algerian gas plant operated with rocket-propelled grenades, but there were no casualties or damage, the companies and sources said. After a four-day standoff, the Algerian army moved in. The attackers were thought to have crossed into Algeria from neighboring Libya.
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No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
