APS : Saturday, 09 June 2018
ALGIERS- Oil and gas production has been virtually stabled in 2017 while consumption of energy increased, according to the ministry of energy.
In hydrocarbons, primary commercial production was 164 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe), against 165 mtoe in 2016 (-0.8%), according to “Algerie Energie,” a magazine published by the ministry.
The increase in natural gas production partially offset the drop in production of other products, including crude oil resulting from the implementation of OPEC output cut agreement.
Exploratory drilling fell by 9% with 324 km drilled, “in line with the priority of directing the efforts towards the development of oil and gas fields to boost production in the medium and long term.”
As a result of the efforts to renew the reserves, 33 hydrocarbon discoveries were achieved by Sonatrach alone.
In processing, refined products output dropped by 28.5 mtoe in 2017, against 29.1 mtoe in 2016 (-2.1%), due to a halt for the maintenance of refinery reforming units in Skikda, Hassi Messaoud and Adrar.
In liquefaction, LNG production rose to 27 million m3 in 2017 from 25.5 million m3 in 2016 (+6%).
National consumption of energy showed a moderate increase by 1.5% in 2017 to reach 57 mtoe, which mainly came from consumption of natural gas, while consumption of oil products declined.
