The Algerian state oil company sonatrach It has promised this Friday to maintain the current prices for all its clients, with the exception of Spain. The company has threatened to review prices with its Spanish client, the company naturgyin the middle of the diplomatic crisis that has been opened between both countries after the change of Spanish position at dispute over Western Sahara.
“Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukrainegas and oil prices have skyrocketed. Algeria has decided to maintain relatively fair prices for all its customers. However, it is not ruled out to carry out a ‘recalculation’ of prices with our spanish client& rdquor ;, has declared the executive director of the public company, Toufik Hakkarspeaking to the government news agency APS.
Currently, the contract between Naturgy and Sonatrach is within a regular review process in which it has been installed for several months, within the normal of the contract, since any gas agreement of these characteristics includes price review conditions from time to time. Although it is true that the current situation, with a extraordinary rise in the prices of this raw material, as a consequence of the war in Ukraine and the pressure exerted by Putin on the gas tap to Europe, may lead the Algerian state oil company to pressure upwards in the negotiation of the new prices, as you suggest Toufik Hakkar.
The relationship between the companies is good, not in vain, the Algerian oil company is part of the shareholding of the Spanish energy company with a 3.8% of its capital. But in the political sphere, the treatment between the two countries has become tense, after the recognition by the Government of Pedro Sánchez of the Moroccan autonomy plan. The Maghreb country called for consultations “with immediate effect” to its ambassador in Madrid, Said Moussibehind the “sudden change“Over Which Was Seen”very surprised“And the first statements of the state oil company after this political turn are not very flattering.
Furthermore, this is coupled with the Algeria’s flirtation with Italycountry with a great russian gas dependency and that it also has a gas pipeline from Algeria (Transmed), which is why it has become a potential client for Sonatrach. In fact, both delegations from the Italian government and the Portuguese government have recently visited Algeria to discuss, among other issues, the future of the energy supply, in the interest of the European Union to reduce dependence on Russia.
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In his statements to the APS agency, when asked if Algeria was in a position to supply Europe in its search for alternatives to Russian gas, Hakkar has acknowledged that “at this time” they have “a few billion that cannot replace Russian gas” in Europe (the continent imports about 155 billion cubic meters from Russia each year). “Although at the rate of our explorations, our capacities will double in four years, which suggests promising prospects with our customers,” he added.
The group wants to invest about 40,000 million dollars (some 36.2 billion euros) over the next four years to investigate and exploit deposits, both oil and gas, and in the case of gas, to double the Algerian capacity in this period.