Algerian state petroleum firm Sonatrach plans to install solar power plants to supply the electricity required by all its fields and facilities, although the company’s director general Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour says the pace of deployment will be constrained by tight budgets.
Mr Ould Kaddour told an Algiers conference on energy transition this week that Sonatrach will “still be dependent on hydrocarbons for a good while. Investing in solar requires a lot of money, but I would like to know where we will get this money. For now Sonatrach is doing it (solar) gradually; it’s a long-term job.” With the Algiers government insistent on not borrowing from outside the country, all state-run operations face funding constraints (MEES, 12 January). Sonatrach’s five-year investment plans have been falling year-by-year and recent spending has focused on the upstream (MEES, 4 May). (CONTINUED - 872 WORDS)
