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Wednesday, October 19, 2016
In an attempt to revive investment in its oil and gas sector and boost its production levels, Algeria intends to award flexible exploration licenses, or prospecting licenses. Sidi Ali Betata, president of Alnaft, told Interfax Natural Gas Daily that the government hopes IOCs will find the new contracts more attractive.
“Many partners say that [we are] rigid,” Betata, was quoted by Interfax as saying. “I think for the new licenses it will be better.” Under the new regime of prospecting licenses, foreign firms will only have to gather information on the acreage; no commitments to drill are made upfront.
“Our objective is to match the interest of IOCs in terms of areas and after we want to know what the difficulties are. We have met companies and learned from our partners,” said Betata.
Most of the IOCs that have shown interest in the prospecting licenses are already present in Algeria, but there are some new companies as well, said Betata.
Alnaft is now fine-tuning the framework before submitting it to the energy minister for approval.
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