Algeria to Launch Tender for Exploration blocks in april

Algeria to Launch Tender for Exploration Blocks in April

04-23-2008

Sonatrach, Algerian state-oil company, is planning to launch a tender for bids covering 15 blocks for exploration. According to CEO Mohamed Meziane, the tender offer will be started in April.

A total of 69 companies had expressed an interest in the blocks in December, including a number of French companies, which Meziane declined to name.

"That shows that Algeria remains attractive" as an exploration site, he said.
Some experts have suggested that Algerian oil reserves are not as extensive as the country's official estimates.

The tender process could take until the end of the year, Meziane continued.
He confirmed that the memorandum of understanding signed between Sonatrach and Russian gas giant Gazprom in August 2006 had expired without any concrete projects materializing.

Under the accord, Sonatrach and Gazprom, both major suppliers of gas to Europe, had envisaged cooperating in the exploration, extraction and transport of oil and gas, the development of gas infrastructure and the treatment and sale of gas in Russia, Algeria and other countries.

Most of the companies are expected to study carefully the new Algerian tax laws during this bid round.