Good news in Algeria’s oil sector is hard to find. Instead of the country’s oil and liquids production increasing as planned from close to 1.4mn b/d in 2005 to a targeted 2mn b/d in 2010, it has fallen, to about 1.1mn in 2016. There hasn’t been a new oil field start up since 2015, while delays to the Eni-operated Central Area Field Complex (CAFC) project on Block 406b in the Berkine Basin mean that some of the production gains scheduled from the project this year will now be deferred. An acute cash crunch doesn’t help either (MEES, 15 September).
The 40,000 b/d oil phase of the CAFC project is responsible for the only new-field crude production scheduled for 2017 (MEES, 3 February), but it is taking longer than expected to ramp up. Production start-up was completed at the end of 2016, with development activities to be completed “during 2017,” according to Eni’s 2016 Factbook, published in April (MEES, 28 April). “Drilling activities of development wells progressed” in the first half of 2017, according to Eni’s 27 July interim report, but “production ramp-up” is now expected “in 2018 with the completion of drilling and linking activities,” it says. (CONTINUED - 1321 WORDS)
