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The head of Algeria’s state-owned petrochemical company Sonatrach has said that its interests in Libya “are not threatened”. Abdelhamid Zerguine was . . .[restrict]speaking at news conference on Tuesday in Algiers in which he also announced the group will invest $15.8 billion in 2012 to increase production and transport capacities.
’’We have surface facilities [in Libya] but our interests are not threatened. We have not received yet the green light to resume activity as the group facilities are located in an area of insecurity,” he declared. However, he believed the company’s activities should resume shortly “once all necessary conditions are met”.
Sinatrach was not yet producing oil before the revolution but was engaged in exploration. It and its consortium partners, including Oil India and Indian Oil Corporation, were awarded four exploration blocks adjoining the Algerian border in 2008. The following year it announced oil had been found at one site near Ghadames on the Libyan Algerian border. A second discovery was announced in 2010.
Last February, however, Sontrach pulled its 80 staff out of the Ghadames site after pro-Qaddafi mercenaries reportedly attacked the oil rig and looted its offices. Two months later, Algerian Oil minister Youcef Yousfi announced that the organization had ceased all operations in Libya.
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