Sonatrach will invest $40 billion over the next five years, of which 51% will be in dinars, the company’s CEO Toufik Hakkar has said.
This year will involve “growth in production and sales”, Hakkar wrote in the latest issue of Sonatrach news. The company will maintain exports above 90 million tonnes per year of oil equivalent, driven by new deposits in the southwest and southeast.
Exports in 2020 are reported to have been 82.2mn tpy.
Domestic demand will reach 70 million tpy of oil equivalent by 2024, he said.
The Sonatrach head said its dinar spending commitment reflected its focus on local content.
Describing the double crisis of COVID-19 and the price drop in 2020 as being “particularly painful”, Sonatrach’s resilience had stood it in good stead. Revenues fell in 2020 as a result of these issues, in addition to OPEC production constraints.
Algeria’s oil revenues reached $22 billion in 2020, according to Algerian Energy Minister Abdelmadjid Attar as quoted by country’s APS news service. This was down $11bn from 2019.
Attar went on to say domestic consumption of energy was increasing by 5.6% per year.
Progress
During 2020, 18 new discoveries were made, major projects and gas infrastructure commissioned, while deals were signed on a new refinery at Hassi Messaoud and a design contract for a polypropylene plant, Hakkar said.
These steps will help strengthen Sonatrach and allow it to continue to meet its obligations, nationally and internationally.
Hakkar also highlighted the various agreements signed with international companies around future exploration in Algeria. Sonatrach also renewed gas agreements with Spanish and Italian companies.
This year, the official continued, 2021 brings with it hope of vaccinations. In the meantime, though, Hakkar called for people to continue complying with regulations brought in to control the spread of the pandemic.
“We are confident for the future”, he said. Sonatrach’s assets will help to ensure the “development and sustainability of our society”.
Standards
The Sonatrach bulletin also noted the appointment of the Ethics Committee, on January 20. The committee’s CEO Hamani Zobair will report direct to Hakkar.
The aim of the new group is to strengthen governance within Sonatrach. Hakkar said the committee must increase the trust inside the organisation, with the workers, and also its external partners.
Sonatrach has also signed a framework agreement with Algeria’s Ianor, the national standards body. One of the first steps will be for the company to implement the ISO 2600 standard, on social responsibility, and ISO 37001, on anti-corruption.
LNG works
Sonatrach also reported progress on LNG maintenance during 2020. The company noted that the old GL1Z and GL2Z facilities had become rundown with an impact on performance and output.
The company carried out maintenance to maintain capacity and reduce gas consumption. Work was also carried out on GL3Z, which can produce 4.7mn tpy, starting in August.