Algeria works to rejuvenate ageing oil wells to boost output
RHOURD NOUSS: Algeria has launched a programme to rejuvenate its ageing oil and gas wells and boost production as part of efforts to address a crash in oil earnings, a senior Sonatrach manager said.
Low prices have slashed the Opec member’s energy earnings roughly in half, with revenues expected at about $35 billion in 2016 compared with more than $60 billion in 2014.
“We must recover every single scrap of oil or gas, this is why we have decided to rejuvenate our wells,” Sonatrach’s vice president for exploration and development Salah Mekmouche said during a visit to Rhourd Nouss, some 1,200 km (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Algiers.
He said the programme included Sonatrach using for the first time inexpensive techniques such as Early Production Facilities (EPF) and Central Processing Facilities (CPF) in order to boost wells.
Six EPFs have already been installed around the giant oil field of Hassi Messaoud, about 400 km from Rhourd Nouss, which produces more than 400,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The Rhourd Nouss area, in the vast dunes of the Targui district, includes El Hamra gas field, Algeria’s second biggest after Hassi Rmel. El Hamra produces some 24 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.
Mekmouche said the oil price crash had pushed Sonatrach’s management to innovate and find the cheapest solutions to boost production.
“We need to do more with less, this is our challenge at Sonatrach today,” Mekmouche told journalists at Rhourd Nouss gas facility, which processes 10 million cubic metres per day, and 2,000 metre cubic condensate per day. He said $9 billion would be invested every year in development and exploration until 2019.— Reuters