The companies have completed works on drilling 24 new wells in El Assel and built a gas processing plant.
The El Assel licensed area is located in the oil- and gas-bearing Berkine Basin, 500 km south of Algeria's capital city Algiers and 150 km away from the oil production center's town Hassi Messaoud.
It comprises 3 blocks with a total area of 3 250 sq. km.
The underlying geology is Triassic and Cambrian-Ordovician sandstone.
Gazprom and Sonatrach hold 49 and 51 % in the project, respectively.
Algeria's Sonatrach is the largest oil & gas company in Africa.
Algeria's proven natural gas reserves account for 4.5 trillion m3 (2nd-largest in Africa after Nigeria- 5.25 trillion m3 ).
The bulk of natural gas reserves are concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the country.
The country's proven oil reserves stand at 1.5 billion tons (3rd-largest in Africa after Libya and Nigeria). 
