New Sonatrach CEO: Foreign Partnerships Essential
Algeria's state energy company Sonatrach wants to develop its partnerships with foreign firms to boost output and exports, its new chief executive said on Wednesday, comments that could reassure investors a week after his appointment.Algeria, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a major gas supplier to Europe…
Algeria Seeks to Cut Energy Consumption After Oil Earnings Fall
Algeria is offering motorists incentives to more than double the number of cars running on natural gas by 2021 in an effort to reduce consumption of costly imported fuel amid strained public finances, officials said. The North African country has been struggling with a halving since 2014 of vital oil and gas revenues, which make up 60 percent of the budget and 95 percent of exports.
Algeria's 2017 Energy Earnings Soar
Algeria's energy earnings, the main source of state finances, rose 16.45 percent in 2017, helping to reduce the trade deficit by 34.4 percent, according to official figures reviewed by Reuters on Monday. The decline in the deficit pushed up the coverage of imports by exports to 76 percent, against 64 percent in 2016, customs data showed.
Algeria Energy Earnings Up 18%
Algeria's energy earnings rose 18 percent in the first ten months of 2017, which helped reduce the trade deficit by 34 percent, official data showed on Monday. The deficit decline pushed up the coverage of imports by exports to 75 percent, from 63 percent in the January-October period of 2016, according to customs figures. Oil and gas exports…
Sonatrach, Baker Hughes Form JV
State energy company Sonatrach and Baker Hughes, part of GE (BHGE), will set up a joint venture and build an oil equipment plant in Algeria at a cost of $45 million under a deal signed on Thursday, Sonatrach said. Algeria's Sonatrach will hold a 51 percent stake and BHGE the remaining 49 percent in the project which will be based in Azrew in western Algeria, it said in a statement.
Algeria Plans Fuel Price, Tax Hike to Offset Fall in Energy Revenues
Algeria plans to raise prices of subsidised gasoline and diesel for a third straight year in 2018 to cut domestic consumption and imports at a time of growing pressure on state finances, according to an official document seen by Reuters. The government also plans to raise taxes and introduce new levies on local and imported goods such…
Saudi wants OPEC to solve own problems before meeting non-OPEC
Top OPEC oil exporter Saudi Arabia has told the producer group it will not attend talks on Monday with non-OPEC producers to discuss limiting supply, OPEC sources said, as it wants to focus on having consensus within the organisation first. The Nov. 28 meeting in Vienna was planned to discuss the contribution that producers outside OPEC will make to a proposed supply-limiting agreement.
OPEC Could Schedule Extra Meeting
OPEC members could decide to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss oil prices immediately after an informal gathering in Algiers next week, Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa said on Tuesday. Bouterfa told local radio he was optimistic that participants would reach a consensus on how to stabilise the oil markets at the Algiers meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Sept. 26-28.
Sonatrach Says Oil Drilling Results "Very Satisfactory"
Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach on Tuesday reported new successful drilling results with partners Thailand's PTTEP and China's CNOOC at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project in the Berkine basin. Tests showed a crude oil flow rate of 2,406 barrels per day, Sonatrach said in a statement, describing the result as "very satisfactory". Sonatrach…
Indonesia's Indorama Signs $4.5 bln of Algerian Phosphate Deals
Algeria signed deals with Indonesia's Indorama Corporation on Monday to develop a phosphate mine and build two plants to process the crop nutrient in the North African country at a total expected cost of $4.5 billion. The contracts are part of steps to develop Algeria's long-neglected mining sector and diversify the OPEC member country's economy away from oil and gas, after a sharp fall in energy earnings.
Algeria Jan-May Trade Deficit Up 35.5%
OPEC member Algeria's trade deficit reached $9.8 billion in the first five months of 2016, a 35.5 percent rise from the same period a year earlier, due to a decline in energy earnings after the oil price slide, official data showed on Monday. Oil and gas exports, which accounted for 93 percent of Algeria's total exports, dropped 37 percent to $9.13 billion in the January-May period, according to customs figures.
Algerian Court Jails Six in Oil Firm Corruption Case
An Algerian court jailed six people on Tuesday in a corruption case involving state energy firm Sonatrach, including a former vice president and an ex-state bank chief, and it fined two local subsidaries for their role. The verdicts in the so-called "Sonatrach 1" case come at a time when sliding global oil prices have significantly hit state finances in Algeria…
Algeria Swings Into Trade Deficit as Energy Earnings Fall
Algeria posted a trade deficit of $12.62 billion for the first 11 months of 2015, against a $5.45 billion surplus a year ago, after a 42.4 percent fall in energy earnings caused by the drop in crude oil prices, official data showed on Monday. Oil and gas exports, which account for about 94 percent of total sales abroad, tumbled to $32.36 billion in the first 11 months of 2015 from $56.2 billion a year earlier.
Iran Wants OPEC Price Boost
Iran's vice-president on Thursday called on oil-producing countries to boost cooperation to stabilise crude prices during a visit to fellow OPEC member Algeria, Algerian state news agency APS reported. Producers need to intensify cooperation to "stabilise crude prices in the world market and cope with a conspiracy being plotted against producing countries and in which some Muslim countries are involved…
Statoil Hopes Algeria Amenas Gas Plant at Full Capacity
Algeria's In Amenas gas plant should be back to full output capacity soon when partners complete work on a third processing train, a senior official at Norwegian oil company Statoil said on Tuesday. Amenas, which once accounted for 11.5 percent of the OPEC state's gas production, has been working less than full capacity since the January…
Lower Energy Exports Widen Algeria Trade Deficit
OPEC member Algeria recorded a trade deficit of $6.3 billion for the first five months of 2015, compared to a $3.44 billion surplus a year earlier, due to lower energy earnings after global oil prices slumped, official data showed on Tuesday. That pushed down the coverage of imports by exports to 71 percent, from 114 percent in the first five months of 2014.
Algeria Walks Economic Tightrope as Oil Falls
For months, Algerian officials repeated their mantra that large foreign exchange reserves would shield the country from collapsing oil prices. Last week, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal took to state television to announce what most already knew - that crisis was at the door. With crude prices having more than halved since June, Algeria…
Algeria Seeks to Calm Protests over Shale Gas Plans
Algeria's government sought on Wednesday to ease tensions in its southern provinces, where protests have spread against plans to extract shale gas to compensate for a drop in conventional energy production. The politically sensitive region is home to the OPEC member state's main oil and gas fields and borders Libya, where a civil conflict is raging, and unstable areas of Mali.
Algeria Expects In Amenas Gas Plant to Return to Normal in 2015
Algeria's In Amenas gas plant is expected to return to full output capacity early next year following a 2013 attack by militants, Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said on Tuesday. The plant accounted for about 11.5 percent of Algeria's natural gas output before the attack, and a return to full operations would free more gas for the North African OPEC country to export.
Gazprom, Sonatrach make O&G find in Algeria
Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach has made a new oil and gas find with Russia's Gazprom following a successful drilling in the desert Berkin basin, bringing to three the number of joint discoveries there, it said on Wednesday. Last week, Algeria awarded just four out of 31 oil and gas fields on offer in its latest energy bidding round as the North African OPEC producer looks to bolster stagnant oil and gas output.
