Algeria’s state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach will launch offshore drilling with France’s Total and Italy’s ENI on two sites in the east and west of Algeria at the start of 2019, its chief executive said on Sunday.
“We should start drilling at the beginning of next year,” Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour told reporters on the sidelines of a signing ceremony with Total for a petrochemical plant that will produce 550,000 tonnes of polypropylene per year.“The potential is huge. We have gas in the east around Skikda, and oil in the west around Mostaganem,” he added.Sonatrach and Total have also agreed to invest $406 million to boost the output of the gas field named Tin Fouye Tabankort Sud.“Our partnership with Total is good and it allows us to implement our long term strategy,” Ould Kaddour told reporters.Total Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement earlier on Sunday that Total and Sonatrach had signed new agreements, including a contract to develop the Erg Issouane gas field.
