London, UK | – Italian energy giant Eni has reached a strategic agreement with Sonatrach for the implementation of renewable energy projects in Algeria.
The first project will be the construction of a 10 MW photovoltaic plant in the Bir Rebaa North (BRN) field, co-operated by the two companies through GSA (Sonatrach-Agip Groupement). The goal is to start activities before the end of the year.
This project is a step of the strategic cooperation agreement on renewable energies in Algeria that Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, and Sonatrach’s CEO, Amine Mazouzi discussed on June 21, and just one of the initiatives that the two companies plan to develop in the near future.
The agreement with Sonatrach fits in Eni’s long-term strategy, aimed at integrating its traditional business and energy from renewable sources, making the most of all possible industrial, logistic, contractual and commercial synergies with the company’s traditional activities.
Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi: “In the early seventies, Eni was the first foreign company to sign an agreement with the Algerian state, for the construction of the Transmed gas pipeline, and, in 1987, the first oil & gas company to sign an upstream contract in Algeria. Today Eni is the first oil & gas company to reach a strategic agreement in the field of solar energy in Algeria, a country with an important potential”.
Eni has been present in Algeria since 1981 and now participates in 32 mining permits. In the period between 2010 and 2015, the company invested $11.5bn in the development of hydrocarbons in Algeria, which represented approximately 26% of the total investment made by all international companies operating in the country, therefore confirming its position as the country’s first foreign partner. Eni’s production in the country currently amounts to more than 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
