Sonatrach Refuses To Bend To The French “Total”

Energy Company Sonatrach, responded on Saturday, furiously to the French oil company “Total”, which announced a week ago, on resorting to the international arbitration, to protest against the oil taxation in Algeria and the profits.

Algerian company chose not to bend to the French “Total”, confirming that this company represents only 1% of what was produced by Algeria, and the oil and businesses companies in the south, saying it is ready for international arbitration to face Total there.

“Reuters” said on Saturday that Sonatrach confirmed that it was ready to face France’s Total in the international courts, and considered that the legal action that is taken against it in this context is “not an event”, and confirmed that they are aware of everything that is being plotted to deduct part of its funds, and that Total do not produce more than 1% of Algeria’s oil supply, which is equivalent to 195 million tons.

A government source also confirmed, according to the same agency; “We’re finally talking about the $ 200 million only”, referring to the total amount of the case.

For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the company “Total” admitted that the potential compensation in the case is less than that which is talked about by the French newspaper “Le Monde”, while Sonatrach asserted that a number of companies abandoned the international arbitration along the lines of the Italian “Eni” Italian, BHP Billiton, Cepsa and Pertamina and backtracked on several cases.

French company “Total” entered in the row of parties that are conflicting with Sonatrach because of the marketing prices of gas in Europe, which dates back to the middle of the previous decade, as reported by the French newspaper Le Monde, pointing out that the international arbitration was initiated by “Total” in coordination with the Spanish energy company “Repsol”.

Dispute revolves around the way through which Algeria changed, in the midnight of last decade, the way to divide the profits from oil and gas marketing, and reported that the French government did not express any opinion on the subject yet.

Economic expert, Kamal Rezzig, explained that the latest issue of the French “Total” with Sonatrach, is not the only of its kind, as the compensation amount that was paid by Algeria to the international courts over the past years exceeds $ 5 billion.

“Every judicial controversy forced the government to pay compensations that are equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars, especially in the energy sector. Number of cases since decades is estimated to the dozens, while the government won only two cases, one of them belongs to Air Algérie and the other one to Sonatrach.