{"id":1678,"date":"2018-09-25T17:14:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2018-09-25T17:14:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:14:42","slug":"sonatrach-plans-expansion-in-most-areas-of-energy-except-for-crude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=1678","title":{"rendered":"Sonatrach plans expansion in most areas of energy except for crude"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bloomberg Algiers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Africa\u2019s biggest oil and natural gas producer plans to expand in most areas of the energy industry except for crude, shunning US President Donald Trump\u2019s latest Twitter directive for Opec members to reduce oil prices.
\nAlgeria\u2019s state-owned Sonatrach Group plans to develop onshore and offshore gas fields, start a trading business, revamp and build refineries and expand output of petrochemicals, chief executive officer Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour said in an interview. While Sonatrach could boost oil production by 200,000 bpd, there is no need for an imminent increase in supplies, he said.
\nAlgeria is the third-biggest gas supplier to the European Union.
\nThe Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries gave a tepid response on Sunday to Trump\u2019s tweet last week insisting that the group \u201cmust get prices down now!\u201d Opec, along with allied producers, said it would boost output only if customers requested additional oil. The producers are halfway toward their June pledge to pump an extra 1mn bpd of crude.
\n\u201cTrump tweets are disturbing, but fortunately this time he did not have an impact on the Opec decision,\u201d Kaddour said. \u201cThe price of oil is subject to many variables.\u201d
\nThe \u201cright price, the fair price,\u201d for both consumers and suppliers is between $70 and $80 a barrel, Kaddour said.
\nAlgeria spearheaded the effort by Opec and allies including Russia to push prices higher by cutting production. The cuts took effect in January 2017, though producers changed course in June and committed to increase output to make up for losses in Venezuela and Iran.
\nSonatrach could produce an additional 200,000 bpd if necessary, Kaddour said. Algeria pumped 1.07mn bpd of oil in August, and production has declined from a peak of 1.41mn bpd in December 2007. Output including gas is equivalent to 3mn bpd, making it the biggest combined producer of oil and gas in Africa, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
\nThe government is working on a law to entice foreign investors and reduce taxes and bureaucracy, and it may take effect by early 2019, he said.
\nSonatrach expects to enter into a joint venture agreement with Exxon Mobil Corp, and will form a partnership with Total SA to build a $1.5bn petrochemical plant by the end of the year, Kaddour said.
\nSonatrach is also in discussions with 14 companies, including Chevron Corp, Total and Vitol SA, to form an oil and gas trading joint venture, he said. \u201cWe are looking for new ways of trading our products,\u201d he said, though the company hasn\u2019t decided whether to partner with an oil producer or a trader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg Algiers Africa\u2019s biggest oil and natural gas producer plans to expand in most areas of the energy industry except for crude, shunning US President Donald Trump\u2019s latest Twitter directive for Opec…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,57,90,96,107,137,139,160,174,184,201,202,209,232,233,244,246,249,256,267,277,279,288],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aramco","tag-baroudi","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-embargo","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}