Algiers — The exploitation of shale gas doesn’t represent a threat to the environment in Algeria, declared Monday a senior official at Sonatrach, mentioning some assets specific to the regions and the nature of the rocks to be fractured.
Speaking during the 9th North Africa Oil and Gas Summit being held on 7-9 December in Algiers, Sonatrach vice-president for upstream activities Mahieddine Touami, said that the warnings expressed on the shale gas impact on the environment are “exaggerated.”
He has also recalled that Sonatrach will not extract shale gas only if the Hydrocarbon Regulation Authority (ARH) approved, taking into account the results of the study of environment impacts.
Concerning the specificities that characterise the Algerian shale gas, he noted that the environmental constraints induced by his extraction in the Algerian Sahara are not similar to the areas in the United States and in Europe.
Moreover, he added that the first experiences of gas extraction in Algeria proved that it not necessary to use huge quantities of water for the hydraulic fracturing, like argued by the detractors of shale gas production.
According to him, only a third of the volume of water was ultimately used in the extraction experiments in Algeria.
The other argument of Touami is that the results of a hydraulic fracturing that Sonatrach has recently completed showed that the rock was breakable with a “relatively low” potential.
Indeed, these assets would improve the investment attractiveness in this area in Algeria which plans to begin commercial exploitation of shale gas from 2022 with a capacity of 20 billion m3.
With estimated reserves of 19.800 billion m3, Algeria is ranked 3rd in the world, after China and Argentina in terms of reserves of recoverable shale gas.
These reserves are located mainly in the basins of Mouydir, Ahnet, Berkine-Ghadames, Timimoun, Reggane and Tindouf.
