Algeria, which aims to play a more decisive role in the regional energy market, announced at the beginning of the month that an investment of more than $30 billion will be made to find and exploit hydrocarbons.
The Algerian public hydrocarbon company Sonatrach expects to reach an oil and gas production of around 200 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) by the end of this year. This was announced Thursday, January 19, by Toufik Hakkar (photo), the boss of the company.
This ambition implies in particular increasing, via prospecting, the reserves of exploitable deposits. This is in a context where the country’s production capacities have recorded a significant decline in recent years.
But since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the situation has changed. Algeria is increasingly solicited by its European partners mainly and the country has indicated its commitment to respond by commissioning new oil and gas perimeters.
“My number one priority is to ensure that the company achieves growth in reserves and production for next year and beyond,” Hakkar said in an interview he gave at Sonatrach headquarters in Algiers.
Sonatrach’s hydrocarbon production posted 185 million toes in 2021.
