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Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Sonatrach, Algeria’s national hydrocarbons company. achieved an export turnover of $20 billion in 2020, a decrease of 39% compared to 2019, following the consequences of the Covid-19 health crisis.
According to the Director of Performance Management within the Sonatrach group, Mohamed Rochdi Boutaleb, the Covid-19 health crisis in 2020 affected almost all economic sectors in the world and in particular that of oil and gas, specifying that oil companies suffered losses estimated at 40% of their income and therefore decided to reduce their investments by 32%.
“For Sonatrach, the impact was similar to that recorded on companies,” Boutaleb said, speaking at a press conference devoted to the presentation of Sonatrach’s results for 2020 and for the first 5 months. from 2021.
In this context, he recalled the 35% drop in the annual average price of Sahara Blend and the reduction in the production of crude oil by the national company in accordance with the decisions of OPEC +, as well as the reduction in the budgets of investment and operating costs of 35% and 13% respectively compared to the initial 2020 budgets.
The investment of Sonatrach reached $5.7 billion equivalent, down 30% compared to 2019. The tax paid to the State amounted to 1.853 billion DA, down 31% compared to 2019.
Despite the negative impact of the health crisis, “the efforts made by Sonatrach have made it possible to achieve positive results, particularly in terms of exploration and renewal of reserves, commissioning of new gas projects and infrastructures and export for the first time in a decade of diesel and gasoline,” he said.
Primary production of hydrocarbons reached 176 million TOE (tonne of oil equivalent), down 6% compared to 2019, driven by compliance with the OPEC + quota and the drop in withdrawals from foreign customers of natural gas.
According to Boutaleb, the marketed production amounted in 2020 to 140 million TOE, down 7% compared to 2019, while exports reached 81 million TOE.
Regarding the domestic production of refineries, it recorded an increase to 28 million tons in 2020, up 7% compared to 2019, he noted, while the import of certain types of Hydrocarbons recorded an 81% decrease in 2020 (0.9 million tonnes) compared to 2019.
Regarding the first five months of the year 2021, the main quantified aggregates are “in clear improvement” compared to 2020, according to the head of Sonatrach.
The primary production of hydrocarbons reached 78 million TOE, up 4% compared to the end of May 2020, while the production of refineries reached 12 million tonnes, up 3% compared to the end of May 2020. Marketed production reached 67 million TOE, up 17% compared to the end of May 2020, while exports approached 41 million TOE.
Export turnover stood at $12.6 billion during the first five months of 2021, against 8.7 billion dollars at the end of May 2020. Hydrocarbon imports fell to 0 .1 million tonnes, down 83% compared to the end of May 2020.
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