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Article: ALGERIA - Sonatrach Background.
- Article from:
- APS Review Oil Market Trends
- Article date:
- February 5, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Input Solutions. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Discoveries made by Sonatrach since the early 1980s had not justified the capital invested by 1990. Structural problems in old fields within the areas of Hassi R'Mel, Hassi Messaoud and In Amenas had worsened to alarming proportions by 1988. The government had also realised the limitations of the national effort to find and develop new deposits and the problems faced by Sonatrach in being virtually the sole investor.
Sonatrach lacked the technology required to develop new discoveries or enhance the recovery rate of existing fields. It lacked the equipment to maintain those old fields which had reserver problems and lost pressure. As a result, Algeria's oil ...