Sonatrach makes biggest gas discovery in Sahara desert in 20 years

Algerian state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach has made a major gas discovery in the LD2 Lias Carbonate reservoir at the level of the Hassi R'Mel exploitation perimeter in the Sahara, that could hold as much as 12 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

The volumes constitute one of the largest revaluations of reserves in the last 20 years, and a project is underway to confirm the estimated volumes and achieve fast track production of around 10 million m3 per day from November 2022, the company said on Tuesday. The production rates are forecast to be around 350 million cubic feet per day.

In a sign of the new energy demand and supply sources, Eni has already signed a deal with Sonatrach for an increased supply of gas to Italy. Along with Italy, the European Union will also be looking to find alternatives for supplies of Russian gas.

Hassi R'Mel is the largest gas field in Algeria and remains the largest producing asset even though it came on stream in the 1960s. Its gas is sent north to the Medgaz pipeline that links Algeria with Spain and supplies the Arzew LNG plant.