Sonatrach aims to triple its LNG supplies to the USA by the year 2015
Ech Chorouk, June 12, 2007
Algeria has been looking to expand its sales of liquefied natural gas well beyond its traditional markets in Europe, and has found an eager buyer in the energy hungry US.
In recent years, Algeria has been increasingly targeting the US as a potential major customer for natural gas, having lifted total exports to more than 60bn cu metres last year.
However, it has far more ambitious plans to become one of the US’s major suppliers in the coming years.
On May 14, Mohamed Meziane, the president and chief executive officer of Sonatrach, Algeria’s oil and gas company, announced the company was looking to triple gas exports to the US from 4bn to 12bn cu metres by 2015.
Mohamed Meziane said he was confident that Algeria could carve out a larger slice of the expanding US market, despite competition from other suppliers, especially those in the Middle East.
Currently, Algerian exports account for only around 5% of US gas imports, something Meziane said he believed would change.
« We managed to break into European markets, including the British, so why not other markets? Our interest is no longer directed solely towards European nations, » he said .
Algeria aims at lifting its annual exports from the 62bn cu metres registered in 2006 to 85bn cu metres by the middle of next decade, with more than a third of this increase intended for the US market.
« Algeria will not miss the opportunity to take share from the US market and Algeria will contribute to fill the US gas shortage, » said Chakib Khelil, the minister of energy and mines.
The emphasis on the US market is part of Algeria’s plan to capitalise on its gas resources and to diversify its markets.
Sonatrach recently announced that, in the future, half of its exports would be carried by pipelines, mainly to Europe, which buys around 70% of its gas needs from Algeria, while the other 50% would be shipped by tanker to more far flung destinations such as the US and Asia.
Algeria did not seek « control of the world oil and gas market or to fix the prices »,Chakib Khelil told a press conference after meeting with Samuel Bodman, the US energy secretary of state on May 8 in Washington.
Chakib Khelil also soothed ruffled US feathers over the close ties between Sonatrach and Russian gas giant Gazprom, saying the relationship was no different from that enjoyed by the Algerian firm and other international companies in America and Europe.
