GHARDAIA (Algeria)- Sonatrach will take full ownership of all the refineries located in the Algerian territory, CEO of Group Abdelhamid Zerguine declared Wednesday in Ghardaïa (500 km south of Algiers). Speaking after a working visit to the region to inspect the choice of the site to shelter the new refinery of Ghardaïa, CEO of Sonatrach announced that the creation of five new refineries in Algeria is imposed by the upward…

Spanish oil company Repsol has made a big natural gas discovery in Algeria, close to the site of January’s bloody hostage-taking terrorist attack on a gas plant that left more than 60 people dead. Antonio Brufau, Repsol’s chief executive, said the company made the find in the Sud-Est Illizi block, close to Algeria’s border with Libya. It announced another big gas find in the same block last November. Repsol said…

Algeria is confident in its security situation following January’s attack by Islamic militants on its In Amenas gas field, said Ali Hached, adviser to Algeria’s Minister of Energy, on the sidelines of a conference Thursday. “People are coming back to Algeria,” he said, adding that the country has intensified security measures for its oil and gas fields. “We are very confident; we faced ten years of a very difficult situation,…

Accusation chamber president at a court in Algiers finished complementary investigation in the case of Algeria’s energy group Sonatrach. All involved persons were questioned and the sentence will be decided on January 23rd, Echorouk has learnt.   Sonatrach’s CEO, his three assistants, his two sons, Executive Director at the group, manager of research department, former General Director of Algeria’s CPA bank and his son are accused of money laundering and…

GAS NATURAL FENOSA and the Algerian company, Sociéte Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures, S.p.A (Sonatrach), today signed an agreement for the purchase from the latter of a 10% shareholding in Medgaz, S.A. (and 10% of shareholders loan) for 61.9 million euros. Medgaz is the company which owns the property and operates the Algeria- Europe underwater gas pipeline connecting Beni Saf…

Algeria is considering a new energy law that would cancel a windfall tax on foreign energy firms, according to a draft seen by Reuters, in an attempt to boost foreign investment and help meet growing social demands. The windfall tax that many potential investors see as a deterrent would be replaced by a “complementary tax on results”. “This tax will replace the windfall tax,” the draft says. It did not…

ALGIERS, Jan 1 (APS) — Algeria’s national hydrocarbon company, Sonatrach, and its partners — Gazprom (Russia), PTTEP (Thailand) and CNOOC (China) — have made two oil discoveries in the Berkine basin in the eastern part of the country. Sonatrach said in a statement here Monday that it made the first discovery with Gazprom in the perimeter El Assel, and another one with its Thai and Chinese partners, PTTEP and CNOOC,…

Algeria expects a slight decline in oil and natural gas produced by foreign firms in the north African nation as a result of an output decline in some fields, the chief executive officer of state-run Sonatrach said. Abdelhamid Zerguine also said the economic crisis in Europe is prompting the company’s clients to seek discounts “because they can’t sell the gas and generate their profit margin,” according to the state-run APS…

Algeria’s Sonatrach announced on Tuesday a crude oil discovery at a project it partners with Thailand’s top oil and gas explorer, PTT Exploration and Production PcL (PTTEP), and CNOOC Ltd. The oil find was made at the Hassi Bir Rkaiz project in the Berkine basin at blocks 443a-424a-414xt-415ext, it said in a statement on its website. The discovery is at the sixth well to be drilled at the project, with…

Sonatrach plans to add 10 million tonnes a year (t/y) of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity at its Skikda plant next year. Zoubir Soullem, head of Sonatrach’s LNG export division, said the boost will come via two new trains. One train and a liquefaction facility will be operational by the end of this year, he added. The second train will come on stream in 2013, although he declined to…