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Ten Year Network Development Plan 2015
Table 5.7:
Algeria’s upcoming natural gas projects (Source EIA 2013, country report Algeria)
5.3.2.3 Algeria
Algeria is currently the third largest gas supplier of the EU and the fourth when
considering LNG. It is providing an average daily delivery of 853GWh/d represent-
ing 311TWh (28bcm) in 2013. It is expected to remain a key importer along the
time horizon of this report. Beyond the usual uncertainty related to production, Eu-
ropean market is competition with the Algerian internal and the global LNG markets.
Reserves
With its 4,500bcm (49,557TWh) of proven natural gas reserves Algeria ranks in the
top ten of countries with the largest gas reserves in the world
1)
and the second larg-
est in Africa after Nigeria. More than half of the reserves (2,400bcm – 26,476TWh)
are located in the centre of the country within the historical Hassi R’Mel field. The
rest comes from fields in the South and Southeast of the country. Besides that,
Algeria holds vast untapped unconventional gas resources. According to official
figures, these resources amount up to 19,800 bcm (218 TWh) of shale gas and
additional 8,500 – 14,100bcm (93,446 – 155,743 TWh) of tight gas
2)
. Production
start of unconventional reserves is expected for 2020.
Production and Consumption
Since 2005 some of the Algerian largest gas fields have begun to deplete and hence
the production is slowly declining. Algeria aims to remedy at that situation bringing
new gas fields on stream. Unfortunately many of these projects are behind sched-
ule because of delayed governmental approval, difficulties in attracting investment
partners and technical problems. Algeria state-owned company Sonatrach plans to
invest 100 billion dollars by 2018 in the national oil and gas sector including 22
billion dollars for gas fields.
ALGERIA’S UPCOMING NATURAL GAS PROJECTS
Project name
Partners
Output (bcma)
Start year
Gassi Touli
Sonatrach
n.a.
2014 +
In Salah (expansion)
BP/Sonatrach
5.7
2015
Reggane Nord
Repsol/Sonatrach
2.9
2016
Timimoun
Total/Sonatrach
1.6
2016
Touat
GDF Suez/Sonatrach
4.5
2016
Ahnet
Total/Sonatrach
2.8 – 4.2
2016
Hassi Ba Hamou
BG Group/Sonatrach
2.0 – 2.8
2016 +
Isarene (Ain Tsila)
Petroceltic/Sonatrach
Tbd
2017 +
However, natural gas production is likely to continue to decline in the short-term but
may recover in the mid-term. On the other hand, domestic gas consumption in
Algeria has increased since 2004 and shows an ongoing upward trend that could
influence export potential.
1) Country report Algeria, EIA, May 2013
2) Platts July 23, 2014, issue 141