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DMEA POLICY DMEA
Algerian energy minister revises
timeline for drop in gas exports
AFRICA ALGERIA’S Energy Minister Abdelmajid Attar fi gure of 64 bcm.
has said that the country’s natural gas exports are The North African state has said it expects
not likely to decline significantly before the end this trend to continue in the long term. Th is is
of the decade. partly because rising domestic consumption lev-
Attar, the former CEO of the national oil els will reduce the volumes available for export
company (NOC) Sonatrach, told reporters at the and partly because the country is not replacing
beginning of last week that export volumes were its reserves quickly enough to compensate for
set to fall in the near future. production.
Algeria is on track to sell 45bn cubic metres of Declining exports would probably pose a
gas to foreign buyers in 2020, he said, but annual problem for Algeria’s government, which derives
exports will sink to 26 bcm in 2025 and remain fully 95% of its foreign-currency revenues from
in the 25-30 bcm per year range in the second crude oil and natural gas sales.
half of the decade. They might also affect Sonatrach’s ability to
Volumes could then fall further to 20-30 bcm meet all of its commitments to foreign customers
per year after 2030, he added. – including buyers of pipeline gas in Italy, Spain
Later in the week, though, he backtracked, and Portugal, as well as buyers of LNG in Spain,
saying that he did not believe exports would drop France, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
into the 25-30 bcm per year range so quickly. The NOC is pinning its hopes for the future
This shift is not likely to occur until 2030 or later, on unconventional gas projects.
he stated. Algeria is believed to possess 20trn cubic
Algeria exported around 40.9 bcm of gas in metres of this hydrocarbon source, and commer-
2019, including both pipeline and LNG ship- cial discoveries would help boost the country’s
ments. This marked a 36.1% drop on the 2005 reserves.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 33 20•August•2020
