Page 8 - AfrOil Week 38 2022

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Addis Ababa had awarded an exploration
licence to POLY-GCL in 2013, and the Chinese
company reported several years later that it had
found crude oil within the Hilala section of its
acreage. It then began a programme of produc-
tion testing at the Hilala fields in June 2018 and
marked this milestone with a ceremony attended
by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Subsequently, though, POLY-GCL did not
begin commercial development of Hilala as
anticipated. As such, the Ministry of Mines and
Petroleum informed the Chinese company in a
letter delivered in March 2022 that it would have
to launch bring the fields on stream within four
years of the start of production testing or risk
seeing its PPSA canceled without any further
notice.
POLY-GCL did not meet the deadline, which
fell in June 2022, and its licence has now been Uma, shown speaking to reporters on September 21 (Photo: Twitter/@TakeleUma)
rescinded.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (NSAI) that confirms the presence of sizeable
has faulted the Chinese company for the slow natural gas reserves in the basin.
pace of its work, arguing that delays at Hilala NSAI submitted the report to Uma in late
have hampered efforts to attract investors to August after wrapping up a four-month study of
Ogaden. The ministry is keen to find partners the basin, which lies in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali
to explore and develop the basin after receiving regional state. The document certifies the size of
a report from the US-based geological con- the reserves at 7 trillion cubic feet (198.2bn cubic
sultancy Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc metres). ™

PERFORMANCE
Sonatrach CEO insists Algeria is capable of

delivering 25 bcm of gas to Italy in 2022

ALGERIA ALGERIA will be able to supply Italy with at
least 25bn cubic metres of natural gas this year,
said Tewfik Hakkar, the CEO of the national oil
company (NOC) Sonatrach, following reports
that the North African country might not be
able to uphold its commitment to increase
deliveries.
Hakkar told Bloomberg in an interview on
September 21 that Sonatrach was set to export
25.2 bcm of gas to Italy in 2022. This would
represent a rise of almost 20.6% on the figure of
20.9 bcm posted for 2021, according to data that
the news agency cited from Italy’s gas network
operator.
According to the Sonatrach CEO, Algeria has
already arranged to send 21.6 bcm of gas to Italy
under long-term contracts and expects to pro- Sonatrach pipes natural gas to Italy via the TransMed system (Photo: TransMed)
vide another 3.6 bcm via spot-market transac-
tions. Sonatrach may even be able to send more he said. “The supply prospects of the Italian mar-
gas, he added, stating that he anticipated the ket, but also of the markets connected to Italy,
signing of additional supply contracts “during are promising,” Hakkar declared.
the coming weeks”. He also expressed confidence in the Algerian
This is good news for Italy and for other NOC’s ability to deliver all the gas it had prom-
European countries that can import gas via Italy, ised this year.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 38 22•September•2022