Sonatrach to Produce Gas from Hassi Messaoud
Algeria’s largest oil field, Hassi Messaoud, will produce sales gas for the first time in two months’ time, said state Sonatrach CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour last week.
The field will produce 10mn m3/d, the Sonatrach chief said September 6 and reported by state news agency APS the next day. That’s equivalent to some 3.65bn m3/yr, which should help offset declining gas production elsewhere in Algeria.
Ould Kaddour said it was important to earn additional revenues from gas, in the context of the globally lower oil prices. APS cited another official who said that some 150bn m3 of gas had been injected from other fields into Hassi Messaoud since the 1970s so that it could produce oil. He said gas would still be injected into the field, but that 10-15mn m3/d would also be produced without any additional investment.
The Sonatrach chief also visited the Guellala facility at Hassi Messaoud that allows 0.9mn m3/d to be recovered, which hitherto would have been flared, of which 0.5mn m3/d for sale and 0.4mn m3/d for reinjection.
APS also reported that the government on September 6 approved eight oil and gas exploration and production contracts, one of which relates to an agreement between Sonatrach and Eni lasting five years agreed in June 2017 (Bir Rebaa Nord) and involving a solar unit to be developed there; the seven others relate to seven contracts allocated by regulator Alnaft to Sonatrach covering 14 blocks.
The next major gasfield development expected onstream is the Sonatrach-Engie operated Touat gas project which most expect to start up 2018; plateau production at 100% from the ten Touat fields is 4.5bn m³/yr. The project was originally scheduled to start producing end-2016.
Mark Smedley