Chevron, the second American oil company, had expressed its appetite for Algerian hydrocarbons in February 2023 . But he is not the only one, there is another American giant on the spot, Exxon. The USA is the leading producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world, but Algeria’s immense reserves are of great interest to them. According to The Wall Street Journal, ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the verge of signing the contracts of the century with Algiers…
The American economic newspaper reported this Friday, June 2 that the two world leaders plan to drill for the first time the deposits buried in the Sahara and whose potential is enormous. The advantages of the law on foreign energy companies, put in place by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in 2019, have reached the ears of the American majors, after the Italians and the French .
The same source indicates, on the basis of information provided by the Algerian Minister of Energy, Mohamed Arkab, that the two parties could finalize the agreement by the end of this year. The Minister specifies that the government is putting the cursor on the exploitation of conventional gas. But for the first time the shale gas dossier is on the table, since Algeria has the third largest reserves in the world.
“I am pushing Sonatrach, because we need to increase our volumes ,” said Mohamed Arkab, reports Algérie 360°. And there the geographical proximity and the gas pipeline connections to Europe can be decisive in the face of competition, mainly the United States and Qatar which also sell to Europe.
At this stage, what we know is that Chevron has sealed a pact with the Algerian authorities to take a position on three oil and gas basins: Ahnet in the south, Gourara in the center of the country and Berkine in the east, on the outskirts borders with Libya and Tunisia. The Sahara is therefore clearly the new Algerian El Dorado…
Algeria’s effective oil and gas reserves extend over 1.5 million square kilometres, but barely 47% of this area is currently exploited. There are all these vast virgin territories that could bring big money to the country. “ We still have 53% of conventional gas to develop (…). This will make it possible to considerably increase our production ”, indicated the Minister of Energy.
