Sonatrach News

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel moored in the Tuscan port of Piombino will be moved off the coast of Vado Ligure and Savona in Italy's northwestern region of Liguria, the president of Liguria said on Tuesday.Italian gas grid operator Snam bought the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) last year as part of the Italian government's plan to reduce dependence on Russian gas, but the infrastructure was opposed by the local administration in Piombino.The decision on the proposed site was made after Liguria President Giovanni Toti met Snam's chief executive, a spokesperson for the Liguria president said. The decision on the…

Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni announced that it had signed agreements with Algerian state-owned Sonatrach to extend its gas supply pact.The agreement covers almost 15% of the gas imported into Italy. The agreement extends the 40-year partnership until 2027, with the option of extending an additional two years to 2029.These agreements follow in the steps of a partnership on gas supply and transportation that was established more than 40 years ago, encompassing major pipeline projects and many decades of successful supply to Italy.Eni's Ceo, Claudio Descalzi, commented: "I am particularly pleased with the renewal of the gas supply contract and the level of the strategic partnership with Sonatrach which spans from the exploration and production sector…

The marine industry equipment manufacturer Kalmar has delivered a total of 18 forklift trucks to Algeria's leading drilling contractor Entreprise Nationale des Travaux aux Puits (ENTP).According to a press release from Kalmar, part of Cargotec, the company  will also support ENTP with parts supply and provide operator training to their staff. The machines, ordered in the first quarter of 2018, were delivered during the third quarter.Established in 1981, ENTP is the leading drilling contractor in Algeria with a market share of close to 45 percent. The company performs drilling and maintenance operations on both deep-water and hydrocarbon wells across Algeria.ENTP is a subsidiary of Sonatrach, which is Algeria's largest company in terms of both turnover and number of employees.

French energy group Total and Algerian state-owned firm Sonatrach have signed new agreements, including a contract to develop the Erg Issouane gas field and plans to create a joint venture.The new concession contract to jointly develop the Erg Issouane gas field located on the TFT Sud permit, signed by Sonatrach, Total and Alnaft (the National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources).The TFT Sud permit is located south of the Tin Fouyé Tabankort (TFT) field, of which Total is a long-standing partner. Sonatrach (51%) and Total (49%) will develop the reserves of Erg Issouane located on the TFT Sud permit estimated at more than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).The development…

Sonatrach, Total, Repsol and Alnaft (the National Agency for the Valorisation of Hydrocarbon Resources), have signed a new concession contract for a period of 25 years to extend the exploitation of the Tin Fouyé Tabankort (TFT) gas and condensate field. This new contract, which will become effective upon the approval by the relevant Algerian authorities, will give Total a 26.4% interest alongside Sonatrach (51%) and Repsol (22.6%). The companies have also signed a gas marketing agreement. The partners will carry out the drilling and development investments required to develop additional reserves estimated at more than 250 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Algeria will acquire more vessels to transport gas to Asia as it eyes increased sales in that region, the chief executive of state energy firm Sonatrach said on Monday. "With Russia and the U.S., gas competition is tough," Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour told reporters during a visit to the Hassi Messaoud oilfield. He gave no details. Kaddour also said Sonatrach's oil drilling in Algeria's southern neighbour Niger, where a Sonatrach unit was awarded a production-sharing deal in 2015, had been "satisfying" so far.

Algeria's state energy company Sonatrach said it has signed a deal with oil trader Vitol to send crude abroad for refining as the country seeks to reduce a record fuel import bill. CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour said Sonatrach would pay processing costs before bringing refined fuel back to Algeria, and said it was also negotiating to buy shares in a foreign refinery, but did not give details. "Our goal is to reduce our imports of gasoline, they are too high," Ould Kaddour told reporters on Tuesday. The deal is due to take effect in early February, according to a document seen by Reuters.

Algeria's state energy company Sonatrach will renew a deal with French gas and power group Engie to supply 10 billion cubic meters of LNG per year, a source at Sonatrach told Reuters on Wednesday. The signing ceremony will take place in France, likely before the end of March, and Algeria's Energy Minister Nouredine Bouterfa will attend, the source said. No further details have been provided on the length of the contract, which will replace one that has just expired. But Sonatrach's CEO Amine Mazouzi said recently that new contracts will be for at least 10 to 15 years but no longer than 20 to 25 years. Sonatrach has opted for a dual approach that mixes its traditional preference for long-term contracts with spot market deals to get the maximum out of them at a difficult time for Algeria…

Asian spot LNG prices extended losses this week as oversupplied Japanese utilities sought to offload cargoes and as key European gas benchmarks softened. Asian prices for LNG delivery in March fell 25 cents to about $7.75 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), traders said, ranging from $8/mmBtu to about $7.60/mmBtu. Prices tailed off even more sharply into April, currently trading at around the $7/mmBtu mark, they said. One trader said utilities in Japan "have overbought due to warmer than average temperatures at the end of 2016 and the current cold spell doesn't look like it will last…

French gas grid operator GRTgaz said a force majeure in Algeria and tensions in the global gas market were reducing deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to southern France, just as winter demand for heating intensifies. Deliveries to the Fos-sur-Mer terminal were at about 40 gigawatt-hour (GWh) per day, compared with the 70 GWh per day needed to meet increased winter demand for power and heating, GRTgaz chief executive Thierry Trouve told journalists on Tuesday. The low deliveries at Fos and congestion on the pipeline linking France's northern and southern gas hubs has led to the widening of the spread between prices in the two regions as prices in the south hit new highs.

Natural gas workers in Peru plan to hold an indefinite strike starting Dec. 29 that would disrupt production of the widely-used fuel as well as Royal Dutch Shell Plc's liquefied natural gas exports, the union SUTRAPPEC said Thursday. Some 200 unionized workers needed to operate Peru's Camisea gas fields will down tools to press Argentine energy company Pluspetrol to offer better wages and benefits in a new labor agreement, said SUTRAPPEC spokesman Juan Carlos Vargas. Pluspetrol owns a controlling stake - 27.2 percent - in the Camisea consortium that produces the vast majority of Peru's natural gas from a remote jungle region. Pluspetrol and Netherlands-based Shell, which exports liquefied natural gas derived from Camisea gas production, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Algeria’s state-run oil company Sonatrach has awarded two Chinese firms a $40 million deal to deliver a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier and an option to provide a second vessel, according to a Sonatrach document seen by Reuters. Sonatrach's Hyproc Shipping Company chose Chinese consortium Jiangnan Shipyard and China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd for the provision of a carrier with a capacity of between 11,000 and 13,000 m3, the document said. It said an offer from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a South Korean consortium, had been rejected. Algeria is boosting its transport capacity to meet growing European Union gas demand. Sonatrach currently owns a fleet of ten LPG carriers through its subsidiaries Hyproc Shiping and Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation.

Venezuelan crude exports to the United States declined 10 percent in September versus the previous month due to lower sales of heavy and medium grades to some of regular customers, according to Reuters trade flows data and PDVSA trade documents. State-run oil company PDVSA and its joint ventures sent 44 crude cargoes to the United States last month carrying 724,230 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 807,065 bpd in August. Sales of diluted crude oil (DCO) made with naphtha rose again to 348,200 bpd, from 311,130 bpd in August, but the increase was not enough to offset an export decline to regular clients including PDVSA's refining unit Citgo Petroleum, Motiva Enterprises, Phillips 66 and PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery.

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) signed an initial agreement with Russian company Rosneft to supply oil products and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments. The document defines key terms of the future cooperation between the companies in the area of LNG supplies. The implementation of the terms of the signed document will allow Rosneft to access the high growth potential Egyptian gas market and deepen broader cooperation between the two companies. Minister of Petroleum…

Egypt has issued a five-year tender to lease a second liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, the head of the state gas board told Reuters on Monday, seeking to tackle an energy crisis. Egypt was once an energy exporter but declining oil and gas production and increasing consumption has forced the government to divert energy supplies to the domestic market, turning the country into a net energy importer. "We launched yesterday a tender to lease a second LNG import terminal for a period of five years. We have sent it to eight international companies and we expect to get a reply within a week," Khaled Abdel Badie said in a telephone interview. The floating regasification and import terminal, which converts super-cooled LNG into gas, would be Egypt's second.

Sales to the United States of new Venezuelan crude blends made with imported oil nearly doubled in January to 176,000 barrels per day (bpd), but the rise was not enough to offset a decline in total oil shipments, according to Reuters trade data. Venezuela's state-run company PDVSA started buying Algerian light crude in October from Sonatrach to use it as diluent for its own extra heavy oil output. China and the United States have been receiving cargoes of the new blends since then, but disagreements over terms of the Algerian oil sales have caused PDVSA to halt the purchases, according to industry sources. PDVSA and its joint venture partners sent 736,000 bpd of crude to the United States last month, down 10.5 percent from December.

Venezuela is sending its first shipment of crude mixed with Algerian light oil to China, according to state oil company PDVSA and traders. Venezuela recently started importing Saharan Blend from Algerian state-run Sonatrach to dilute its extra heavy crude from the Orinoco oil belt. PDVSA had previously imported costlier naphtha to use as a diluent. The Carabobo supertanker carrying 1.8 million barrels of Merey heavy crude will arrive in China in 46 days, PDVSA said in a statement. It did not elaborate on the terms of the deal. "This Merey crude was made with the imported Algerian crude," a trader said on Friday. The Merey blend using Algerian oil fetches Venezuela $20 dollars more per barrel than crude mixed with imported naphtha, according to Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez.

Normal operations are resuming at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria 18 months after a raid by Islamist militants killed forty employees, one of the plant's operators, Statoil, said on Monday. "The corporate executive committee has decided that ordinary rotation is to be resumed at the plant as all defined security measures have been implemented," Statoil said in a statement. The plant is operated by BP, Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)

Venezuela is considering importing crude oil for the first time ever and could use a light oil from its partner in OPEC, Algeria, to dilute their own heavy crude, according to a company document seen by Reuters accessed on Wednesday. Despite having the largest oil reserves in the world, in recent years Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has been buying increasing amounts of heavy naphtha for blending with the extraction of heavy crude in the Orinoco Oil Belt, the largest producing region . These blends are made to convert the extra-an exportable product, amid the decline in local production of medium and light crude oils previously used as diluents and delays in construction of new breeders that can change the quality of the crude.

U.S. oil prices rose to near one-month highs on Monday as a weak dollar prompted buying a day before the June contract's expiration, while Brent prices fell as slumping global equities outweighed the impact of low Libyan output. The U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level in more than three months against the yen, which is supportive for oil and commodities priced in dollars. Asian and European equities fell after data released late on Sunday showed growth in average new home prices in China slowed to a near one-year low in April. Meanwhile, Libya's major western oilfields, El Sharara and El Feel, remained shut a week after the government said it reached a deal with protesters to reopen them.

A project consortium that includes RWE Dea has signed a major contract for the construction of a natural gas processing plant and infrastructure in the Algerian Sahara for the Reggane Nord project. The contract is valued at US$976 million and represents an important step forward for the project. Representatives of the Groupement Reggane of which RWE Dea is a partner signed the contract to construct the natural gas processing facilities and corresponding infrastructure including the gathering network and export pipeline on Thursday. The USDollar976 million contract was awarded to Petrofac International (UAE) LLC and stipulates completion of the facilities within 36 months. After completion the plant will be operated with a gas troughput capacity of around 283 million cubic feet per day.

ABB has supplied a uniquely integrative multisystem automation solution for the new Medgaz gas pipeline that connects North Africa’s largest gas producer with the gas transmission networks of Europe. The 210 kilometer pipeline connects the gas fields of Algeria, the region’s largest gas producer, with the gas transmission networks of Spain and southwestern Europe. It delivers up to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, and will in time be expanded with a second pipeline to double transmission capacity to 16 billion cubic meters a year.

The international verification and engineering RINA Group will carry out Basic Engineering Design, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Safety and other studies for the expansion of Greece’s only LNG terminal, at Revithoussa. The four month project was awarded to RINA by DESFA (Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator S.A.). The expansion of the LNG Revithoussa Terminal Cryogenic Facilities will boost the maximum sustainable gas send-out rate to 1400 Nm3/h (with a peak send-out rate of 1650 Nm3/h). The existing terminal consists of an import jetty, two full containment storage tanks, plus one under construction, re-gasification equipment and send-out facilities.