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GERD talks make slow but sure progress

ETHIOPIA THE Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese gov- into a single final document, said the South Afri-
ernments have each tabled outline proposals can Foreign Ministry, which is taking part in the
to create a “unified draft” that would lead to an talks as part of the AU delegation.
agreement on filling and operating the Grand According to a statement by Sudan’s Irrigation
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Ministry, the three countries have exchanged
The three are holding ongoing talks until proposals for the final text of the agreement.
August 28, in an attempt to resolve outstand- It pointed out that they chose both “legal and
ing issues, which centre on agreeing how water technical representatives from each country to
flows on the River Nile will be managed when participate in the merging of the three texts.”
the GERD is running at full capacity. Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas
Cairo fears the potential negative impact of presented proposals for the measures that will
GERD on the flow of its annual share of the Nile’s be followed during the current round of talks.
55.5bn cubic metres of water. The statement said the three countries will
Addis Ababa says the dam is not aimed at work to merge their proposals into a unified
harming Egypt or Sudan’s interests, stressing agreement and hand over a joint project to the
that the main objective is to generate electricity AU chief and South African President, Cyril
to support its development. Ramaphosa.
The talks are being sponsored by the African The meeting is based on the outcomes of the
Union, and have been taking place in mid-July July 21 mini-summit and a joint six-party gather-
without any breakthrough, but also without any ing on August 16 between the ministers of water
walk-outs. resources and irrigation and the ministers of for-
A meeting on August 18 was attended by each eign affairs from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The
country’s ministers of water resources, as well as AU is seeking to formulate a unified draft that
observers from the European Union and US and includes proposals of the three countries, despite
experts from the AU. the wide differences between Ethiopia’s demands
Current differences centre on the interpreta- on one hand, and those of Egypt and Sudan on
tion of procedures to combine the three drafts the other.™

GAS-FIRED GENERATION

Algerian Energy Minister revises

timeline for drop in gas exports

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

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 33 20•August•2020