Algeria intensifies investment in oil and gas sector by launching new projects

OBG highlighted the start of production of Timimoun gas field, which is expected to produce 1,800 million cubic meters of gas.

Algeria has intensified its investment in the oil and gas sector by launching new projects as part of a strategy to increase production and develop the processing industry to create added value, the British company of economic research and consultancy Oxford Business Group (OBG) said.

In this sense, OBG highlighted the start of production in March of the Timimoun gas field, which is expected to produce 1,800 million cubic meters of gas per year in 37 wells, in the framework of an association between Sonatrach (51 percent of the shares ), Total (37.75 percent) and Cepsa (11.25 percent).

The launch of Timimoun's operations, after a series of delays, follows the creation in 2017 of the Reggane Nord gas pipeline, developed by Sonatrach and its European partners Repsol, DEA Deutsche Erdoel, and Edison, to reach an estimated annual production of 4.5 thousand million cubic meters, said OBG.

A third project should be launched in the second half of 2018, the development of the Touat gas field, a partnership between Sonatrach (35 percent), Engie (30 percent) and Neptune Energy (35 percent), which acquired Engie E & P International in February 2018, underlined OBG.

These three projects, which are expected to increase total gas production by about 9 billion cubic meters per year, will be connected to the new 765 km GR5 pipeline that will transport gas to the Hassi R'mel treatment center. This increase in upstream activity occurred when Sonatrach announced its intention to invest 56 billion dollars by 2022.