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A gas field in the Algerian part of the Sahara
Photo: Aflred de Montesquiou/AP
Algeria wants to expand its oil and gas production in the Sahara with the help of international energy companies.
A 25-year agreement on the joint exploitation of the deposits was signed on Tuesday in Algiers by the Italian companies Eni, the US Occidental, France's Total and Algeria's Sonatrach.
At the same time, the Algerian government announced that it would significantly increase gas exports across the Mediterranean to Italy in the coming days;
Italy wants to use it to replace failed imports from Russia.
AFP learned from Algerian government circles that around four billion cubic meters of gas should soon be delivered to Italy.
Since the beginning of the year, the North African country had already delivered 13.9 billion cubic meters to Italy.
The agreement was reached on the sidelines of Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi's visit to Algeria.
Algeria has thus replaced Russia as the largest gas supplier this year, said Draghi.
The now agreed multinational production project in the southern Algerian Berkine region will enable further "significant quantities of gas supplies to Italy," said Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune after a meeting with Draghi.
According to Tebboune, the deal is worth $4 billion.
According to the Algerian company Sonatrach, oil and gas production is expected to reach one billion barrels.
The project is made possible by an Algerian law from 2019, which for the first time allows the joint exploitation of energy deposits with foreign companies.
In Algeria, this law has sparked a lot of resentment: demonstrators accuse the government of selling national wealth to foreign companies.
Algeria is the largest natural gas producer in Africa.
The country supplies around eleven percent of the gas consumption in the EU.
A significant portion of this flows to Sicily through the Transmed pipeline.
dop/AFP
