Algeria Regains Its Shares Of The Gas That Was Exported To Italy

Algeria regained gradually its shares of the gas that is marketed to Italy during the first semester of the current year, after gas exports dropped last year significantly in favour of Libya and Russia, but increased by more than 87% during the first four months of 2016 to reach 6.13 billion cubic meters.

Financial report of the first six months of 206 of the Italian public energy company “ENI”, which copy is available to Echorouk, shows that Algeria’s exports of the natural liquefied gas, including “GNL” towards this country recovered after a contraction phase and a decline in the last year, with an increase in the last four months of 87.5% compared to the same period of last year, which is a significant increase that reached almost 100%.

Algeria’s exports of gas including the GNL reached 6.13 billion cubic meters during the same period, compared to the quantity of the exported gas that did not exceed 3.27 billion cubic meters during the same period of 2015, with an increase that reached 2.86 billion cubic meters.

Same document made clear that the Algerian exports, which rose offset those in the last year from Libya and the Netherlands, as the two countries’ exports dropped by 1.5 and 1.42 billion cubic meters, respectively.

This significant increase in Algeria’s gas exports to Italy reflected the retrieval of Algeria’s position as the second largest exporter of gas to Italy after Russia, as Algeria’s exports dropped last year to the fifth place after Russia, Netherlands, Norway and Libya, and recorded the largest rise among the total of all gas exporters towards Italy, as no country reached an increase of 87%.

This increase reflects the return of relationships between this energy company and the national oil company Sonatrach to normal, as it recently settled a dispute that lasted more than 15 years in the oil field of “Seif Fatima”, forcing “ENI” subsequently to give compensations to the Algerian party, which value was not disclosed, but sources said it is in the range of half a billion euros.

What confirms the return of relationships to normal is the same document that confirmed that the company continued operations of improvement and development of the capacities of the gas field Lejmet Echark “MLE-CAFC” in which ENI operates by 75% of the daily production.