Sonatrach Will Soon Buy The Largest Oil Refinery In Europe

National oil company Sonatrach is aiming to buy an oil refinery in Italy, the largest in Europe in terms of production capacity, to refine Algerian crude as part of its new strategy to reduce the fuel import bill by refining crude oil and bringing it as fuel or buying refineries outside the country.

In the context, the latest developments in this file indicate that the National Oil Company Sonatrach is in advanced negotiations with the Russian Group “Lukoil ” for the acquisition of the refinery, “ISAB” in Priolo area in Syracuse, located in Sicily, Italy, and owned by the Russian Oil and Gas Group “Lukoil”.

In this regard, the Italian website “Augusta” said that the confirmation of the deal has not yet been issued by the Algerian and Russian parties, but all the information and indicators are in the direction of ending the deal in the coming days after it reached the advanced stages.

According to the same source, Sonatrach is negotiating to acquire two oil refineries, one of which is the ISAB refinery in Italy Priolo, Syracuse, Sicily, south of the country.

“The refinery ISAB de Priolo speaks Algerian”, the website said, referring to Sonatrach’s acquisition of it .

One of the reasons for the close end of the deal is that the Italian refinery has been stagnant for 5 years with normal activity, and suddenly, adds the same source, it has made an important investment in restarting the CR30 facility with expenses worth 50 million euros.

The Priolo refinery in Syracuse, Italy, has a refining capacity of 320,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, equivalent to about 11 million barrels a year, which is Europe’s largest crude refinery in terms of production capacity.

Sonatrach, in addition to refinancing part of the Algerian crude abroad, is also seeking to acquire stakes in oil refineries abroad, as announced by the company’s general manager, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, on the sidelines of a visit to the Tiguentourine gas plant on last January 16.

The goal, according to Ould Kadour, is to reduce the import bill of fuel which reached unacceptable levels.

“It is unacceptable and unreasonable to continue importing two billion dollars of fuel”, he said.

Sonatrach has already launched an operation to refine Algerian crude in Italy at Vitol refineries and the Russian Lukoil group, which was founded in 1991 and is headed by the businessman, Vaguit Alekperov, and has refineries in several countries including Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Italy.