Algeria’s state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach will launch offshore drilling with France’s Total and Italy’s ENI on two sites in the east and west of Algeria at the start of 2019, its chief executive, Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour, said on Sunday.
“We should start drilling at the beginning of next year,” Ould Kaddour told reporters on the sidelines of a signing ceremony with Total for a petrochemical plant that will produce 550,000 tons of polypropylene per year.
“The potential is huge. We have gas in the east around Skikda, and oil in the west around Mostaganem,” he added.
Sonatrach and Total have also agreed to invest $406 million to boost the output of the gas field named Tin Fouye Tabankort Sud.
“Our partnership with Total is good and it allows us to implement our long term strategy,” Ould Kaddour told reporters.
Total said in a separate statement that it has signed new agreements with Sonatrach, including a contract to develop the Erg Issouane gas field and plans to create a joint venture.
“Today’s agreements mark a new milestone in the development of the strategic partnership between Sonatrach and Total to continue developing the country’s gas reserves by providing the best of our technological expertise,” Total Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné said in the statement.
Sonatrach and Total will develop the reserves of Erg Issouane, located on the TFT Sud permit in Algeria, estimated at more than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent.
