Bloomberg: Algeria Plans to Boost Natural Gas Shipments to Asia

Algeria, Africa’s largest natural gas producer, has expanded capacity to ship the fuel on tankers and plans to sell more of it in Asia and make up for a decline in exports to Europe, its main market.

“Asia offers the best opportunities in terms of market size and market diversity,” Ahmed Mazighi, the director of market studies at state-run energy company Sonatrach, told the North Africa Oil & Gas conference yesterday in Algiers. Energy saving measures and renewables are reducing fuel consumption in European countries that account for more than 90 percent of Algeria’s gas exports, he said.

Algeria authorized two liquefied natural gas plants in the past two years, increasing its annual capacity to export the fuel on tankers by 12 billion cubic meters, according to Sonatrach. LNG is gas cooled to a liquid to allow its transportation to a destination not linked by a pipeline. It is then brought back to gaseous form and fed into the grid.
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