LNG

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.

Sonatrach, the Algerian national energy company, plans to invest more than $30 billion in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons, notably natural gas, and to upgrade facilities to improve its position in global markets for LNG as well as pipeline gas for Europe.

The European Union’s Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson is in Algeria for two days of talks on strengthening the EU’s energy cooperation with the Algerians after the failure of an EU summit last week to agree a natural gas price cap that would have affected LNG trading.

Algerian energy company and LNG exporter Sonatrach is on track to make $50 billion record earnings this year and the North African nation also attended talks during the week on the 4,000-kilometre Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) from Nigeria via Algeria to bring African natural gas to Europe.

Algeria has said that it was preparing to sign a new pipeline natural gas supply agreement with Italy for around 9 billion cubic metres per annum.

Sonatrach, the Algerian state energy company and LNG exporter, said it was putting into service on January 4 the compression system booster of the Medgaz natural gas pipeline from Algeria to Spain and Portugal.

Sonatrach, the Algerian oil and gas producer and exporter of LNG and pipeline gas to Europe, has reported progress on two natural gas projects in the country’s southwest Sahara desert region.

Sonelgaz, the national electricity and natural gas company of Algeria, said it was studying inter-connections with the continent of Europe for power, adding to the nation’s natural gas pipeline links supplying Spain and Italy and LNG shipments to European countries.

Algerian state energy company Sonatrach, one of the main suppliers of LNG and pipeline natural gas to Europe, said it planned to increase production and sales in the coming year amid upgrades at its liquefaction plants at Skikda and Arzew on the Mediterranean coast and new natural gas discoveries for export in the future alongside industrial development in petrochemicals.

Sonatrach, the Algerian national energy company now under a new chief executive, said it signed medium-term and long-term LNG and pipeline natural gas contracts with French utility Engie, the last of its European customers to renew delivery agreements.