ALGIERS – Sunday, 16 July 2023 (APS) – Sonatrach Group signed Sunday, in Algiers, a memorandum of understanding with the National Petroleum Company of the Congo (SNPC) to strengthen the cooperation between the two sides in hydrocarbons.
This MoU was signed, at the headquarters of Sonatrach, by the groups’ CEO Toufik Hakkar and SNPC’s Director General Maixent Raoul Ominga, in the presence of the executives of the two sides.
This agreement is meant to lay the foundations for an “effective and lasting” collaboration, from the exploration until the marketing of hydrocarbons, including the development, transport, transformation, distribution and the supply of petroleum products.
This MoU comprises also the exchange of expertise and experiences as well as the development of professional skills and the training of SNPC staff, sources said during the signing ceremony.
The signing of this agreement comes within the framework of the visit paid by the SNPC’s delegation, led by its director general Maixent Raoul Ominga, accompanied by several managers of subsidiaries and the company’s directors.
During this visit, scheduled from 16 to 20 July 2023, Congo’s delegation will visit several facilities of Sonatrach, such as Hassi Messaoud oil field, Hassi R’mel gas field, Arzew industrial area and Algiers refinery, as well as training institutions, notably the Algerian Oil Institute (IAP) in Boumerdes and Sonatrach Management Academy “SMA” in Oran.
In a statement made during the signing ceremony, Hakkar said that “the visit of the Congolese delegation comes within the framework of the cooperation initiated following the meetings of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), affirming that this visit will enable the delegation to know Sonatrach and to share the experience and expertise with its executives throughout the whole oil and gas chain.”
“We will work together to share this experiences through Sonatrach’s training centres, IAP and SMA School. This cooperation will enable our two companies to better know each other and to look for partnership opportunities and thereby develop South-South cooperation,” he added, while stressing that the two companies have “a lot of assets” to develop this partnership^.
Through this MoU, the two companies “will work together to develop an energy transition model so as to meet the development objectives of the two sides,” he said.
For his part, SNPC’s director general stressed the cooperation relations existing between Congo and Algeria, notably the different meetings held for the relaunch of APPO, in a particular economic context.