Western Oil Companies Sign $4Bln Deal With Algeria for Oil Extraction at Berkine Field

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Algeria's state-owned oil company Sonatrach on Tuesday signed a contract with France's TotalEnergies, Italy's Eni, and US company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) on the development of onshore blocks at the Hassi Berkine Sud oil field in the country's east.

"Eni signed today with SONATRACH, Oxy and TotalEnergies a new PSC [production sharing contract] for blocks 404 and 208 in Algeria. These blocks are located onshore in the prolific Berkine basin, in Eastern Algeria," Eni said.

The signatories will be using new technology capable of speeding up the recovery of oil reserves after extraction and reducing CO2 emissions, which they expect to prolong production life for 25 years, Eni said. Additionally, the associated output of gas "might become available for export" and be used to diversify Europe's gas supplies, the Italian company said.

"The project's investments will total nearly $4 billion and ultimately allow for the extraction of the equivalent of 1 billion barrels of oil, which will boost the oil extraction by 55%," Sonatrach said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Sonatrach CEO Toufik Hakkar said the company was considering requests from a number of European countries to increase gas supplies amid the current energy crisis.