Algeria: Sonatrach Downstream Investment To Go Ahead
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 |
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Petroleum Africa has reported that Sonatrach is going ahead with plans
for a new us$6bn refinery at Tiaret, the opposite to what local media
reported recently.
Over the next four years Algeria’s Sonatrach will invest about $63.5
billion to increase its natural gas exports and maintain its oil
production capacity. The country is betting that oil prices will once
again be on the rise.
While the state-owned firm’s revenue was down for the first two months
of 2009 over the same period last year due to low oil prices, Chakib
Khelil, Minister of Mines and Energy, said that this will not stop
investment. The minister expects to see oil prices reach between
$70-$80 per barrel in the “longer term.”
According to Khelil Sonatrach does not even need to see those process
to make projects economical. “And we don’t need that much for these
projects to fly," he said. “We will need $40-$50 (per barrel).”
Some of the funds will go to construct a $5 billion gas pipeline to
link new supplies from three new remote desert projects to the
country's gas export system. There are also two new oil projects which
once onstream will aid the country in compensating for declining
output. One of the oil projects is El Merk development led by US
independent Anadarko.
PetrolWorld 210309 Source: Petroleum Africa
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