Algeria's Sonatrach to sell gas direct to Portugal

Algerian state-owned energy group Sonatrach has obtained a license to start selling natural gas direct to Portuguese customers.

• It said Sonatrach unit, “Sonatrach Gas Comercializadora” (SGC) signed the agreement with the Portuguese government on March 17.
  “The Portuguese energy ministry has provided SGC with a license to sell natural gas on the Portuguese market,” a source close to SGC was quoted as saying.
• Some 85 % of Portugal’s gas needs, or 2.5 bn cubic meters a year, are already supplied indirectly by Algeria, under a 20-year agreement signed in 1993. The gas flows through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline linking Algeria to Spain via Morocco which came into service in 1995.
  Sonatrach began selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly to Spanish customers through a Spanish unit last year.
• Last June, it acquired an interest in Portuguese power company EDP. Sonatrach has 2 % of EDP.
  Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil urged foreign gas consumers to change their energy policies to help develop the gas industry, saying tax systems were the main hurdle to exporters wishing to invest in gas importer nations.