Algeria is preparing for more pipeline natural gas deliveries to the European Union as well as more LNG exports as new gas fields are developed amid more discoveries in the prolific gas basins of the North African nation.
The Algerian state oil and gas company Sonatrach has just appointed a new Chief Executive in Rachid Hachichi and he has just held talks with Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Italian major Eni, the company with the most widespread interests in Algeria.
The talks between Descalzi and Hachichi in Algiers on October 12 were also attended by the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Mohamed Arkab.
“Eni and Sonatrach shared the joint programs for the development of Eni’s operated gas production as well as gas and LNG exports to Europe,” said Eni.
Descalzi also updated Minister Arkab on the progress of the accord signed by Eni and Sonatrach in January 2022 on upstream decarbonization, includingdetection of fugitive gas emissions in pipelines and plants and the identification of flaring-down opportunities in Sonatrach’s fields.
Eni currently has equity production of about 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and is the key international energy company in terms of Algerian oil and gas operations.
Ten discoveries
Sonatrach also revealed that Algeria had made 10 new hydrocarbon discoveries in the nine months to the end of September 2023, adding to the 16 other discoveries made in 2022.
Arkab met the Eni CEO after also attending the 25th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) held on October 10 in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, an LNG producer and exporter from its Punta Europa plant on Bioko Island.
The GECF ministers issued a statement declaring that it was “ill advised” to call for any halt in natural gas investments.
“Halting gas investment would curb supplies, lead to an excessive rise in prices and a potential return to coal, as happened in 2022, undermining emissions reduction targets,” said the GECF final communiqué.
Arkab noted that participants at the Malabo meeting highlighted the need for “unrestricted investment” while “strengthening transcontinental financial cooperation in this matter”.
The GECF also advocated more “equitable access” to all technologies related to the exploration, extraction and exploitation of natural gas.
