Sonatrach issued the following announcement on Aug. 11.

The Minister of Energy, Abdelmadjid Attar, met by videoconference, Monday, August 10, with the executive vice-president of Africa, Occidental Petroleum Corporation Saamir Elshihabi with whom he spoke in particular of the prospects for strengthening the partnership between the SONATRACH group and the company Occidental Petroleum in the fields of hydrocarbons, a press release from this ministry said on Tuesday.

Mr. Elshihabi occasionally thanked Mr. Attar for the time he gave him to convey greetings from Ms. Vicki Hollub, President and CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the same source said.

Denying the press articles evoking that Occidental intended to sell its Algerian shares acquired recently through the buyout of Anadarko's holdings in Algeria, Mr. Elshihabi confirmed “Occidental's desire to develop its cooperation with SONATRACH in all the fields of hydrocarbons, recalling the fruitful talks held the day before with the CEO of SONATRACH ”, added the press release.

Mr. Elshihabi also expressed the will of Occidental to associate in the future a greater participation of Algerian competences in their activities in Algeria.

For his part, Mr. Attar confirmed and assured that the Ministry of Energy is ready to support any effort to develop the partnership between SONATRACH and Occidental within the framework of current contracts and especially on new opportunities in all fields of hydrocarbons, particularly under the new provisions of Oil Law 19/13, the document said.

Regarding the state of preparation of the texts of application of the new law on hydrocarbons, the Minister of Energy wished to reassure and inform Mr. Elshihabi that a team is mobilized at this moment for the finalization of priority regulatory texts and that all of these texts will be introduced into the approval circuit as soon as possible in accordance with the new petroleum law.

For her part, the president (CEO) of Occidental, Mrs. Vicki Hollub, affirmed Tuesday, August 11 during an intervention from Houston (United States), that her company took “the strategic decision to make 'Algeria a main asset (Core Asset) ”.

She further specified that Occidental's teams continue to deepen data from Algeria, particularly on additional opportunities in areas in which Occidental currently operates and in expansion areas to maximize the value of assets in view of to strengthen operational capacities in the organization of joint operating with SONATRACH.

“The president of Occidental underlined in particular that Occidental's relations with the Algerian Government are excellent and allow to create value for Algeria and the shareholders of Occidental”, concluded the press release. (APS)

Original source: https://sonatrach.com/actualites/les-perspectives-du-partenariat-entre-sonatrach-et-occidental-petroleum-evoquees