After the record year 2022, the national company announces that it has already discovered six deposits during the first quarter of 2023. In a context of an overall drop in production, the oil and gas windfall does not dry up and places Algeria in a position of strength on the international hydrocarbon market.
In the continuity of resounding official declarations , the Algerian national oil and gas group reveals to have discovered six new hydrocarbon resources between January and March 2023. In total, 17,773 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 1.4 billion m³ of gas per day have been identified by Sonatrach teams, seeking to renew reserves.
In a context of an ups and down international hydrocarbon market, under the dual influence of European Union sanctions against Russia and the crisis in the banking sector, Algeria tends to prove that it is a leading player planning for these raw materials. “These discoveries demonstrate the attractiveness of the mining sector in Algeria”, comments the management of the Algerian giant in a press release made public on Tuesday, April 11. –
Drilling activities
In Touggourt, in the northern Algerian Sahara, drilling of the BRM-1 and BMD-1 wells in the Amguid Messaoud basin revealed flow rates of 10,555 barrels/day of oil and 426,373 m³/day of gas. “These results confirm the significant potential of the region, located to the east of the Hassi Messaoud deposit,” the statement said.
In the Berkine basin, located in the eastern part of the Algerian Sahara, 485,868 m³/day of gas, 239 barrels/day of condensate and 5,022 barrels/day of oil were discovered in the two recently drilled wells, HAM- 1bis and SAISW-1, according to Sonatrach estimates.
The last two discoveries were made in the Ohanet region of the Illizi basin and in the Oued Mya basin, southeast of the Hassi R’mel field with, according to the Algerian major, respectively 336,930 m³/day of gas and 1,504 barrels/day, and 453 barrels/day of oil and 168,312 m³/day of gas.
Double exports
While Algeria recently voluntarily reduced its oil production by 48,000 barrels per day, from May to the end of 2023, in order to stabilize the market, its ambition is to strengthen its gas production and double its exports to the Old Continent, at odds with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
Committed to meeting the energy needs of the European Union, Algiers produced 102 billion m³ of gas, half of which was destined for the local market. “I hope that in 2023 we will reach a production of 100 billion m³ of gas intended exclusively for export,” Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said last December at the Algerian Production Fair ( FPA -2022).
