Algiers, October 31 - Neftegaz.RU. Algeria will sustain robust gas exports to Europe – currently at multi-year highs – thanks to new production and interconnection capacity, said the head of state-run company Sonatrach to Montel.
«We have new supply coming online and we will sustain exports to Europe for years,» CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour told Montel, shrugging off market concerns about rising domestic demand and delays in bringing Algeria's vast gas deposits to market.
Algeria is Europe’s 3rd biggest gas supplier, after Russia and Norway, with Spain depending on the country for around half of its demand. Its pipeline exports to Europe surged nearly 14% year on year to almost 25bcm in the 1st 9 months of 2018, while its supplies to Spain alone reached a historical high of 12.9bcm over the period.
The Sonatrach chief said that incremental gas exports to Europe going forward will increasingly head to Spain and Portugal through the GME and Medgaz pipelines. The 3rd international connection is the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline to Italy through Tunisia.
Algeria is shifting its exports market to focus more on Spain, particularly as Italy expects increasing supplies from Azerbaijan from 2020. Over the summer Sonatrach extended a supply contract with Naturgy, Spain’s biggest buyer of Algerian gas. The deal, valued at EUR 2.5 blliion a year, will see Sonatrach supply 40% of the Spanish company’s needs to 2030.