Sonatrach (Société Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation, et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures s.p.a.), a government-owned company formed to exploit the hydrocarbon resources in Algeria plans the construction of a 10MW Solar Power Plant in Hassi Berkine.
This was revealed by the Central Director of New Resources of Sonatrach Group, Youcef Khanfar on the sidelines of the tenth edition of the International Energy and Hydrocarbons Exhibition (NAPEC 2021).
The installation of this solar park, according to Mr. Khanfar will be financed by the national company for research, production, transport, processing, and marketing of hydrocarbons’ own funds.
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The company is currently preparing its subsidiaries and combining efforts to implement the project which corresponds to the Algerian government’s desire to initiate the energy transition. This North African country has committed in recent years to exploit its solar potential estimated at nearly 2.6 million TWh per year, or 105 times the world’s electricity consumption (22,315 TWh in 2018).
Expectations for the Solar Power Plant in Hassi Berkine
The Solar Power Plant in Hassi Berkine will be launched in 2022 and it will supply the oil sites of the Hassi Berkine basin located in the Wilaya of Ouargla, where Sonatrach has worked in the past on a solar project in partnership with ENI S.p.A, an Italian multinational oil and gas company operating primarily in petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals.
With a capacity of 10MW, the project in question was inaugurated back in 2018 by the Chairman and General Director of the Algerian state company Sonatrach, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eni, Claudio Descalzi in Bir Rebaa North (BRN).
The plant, co-operated by Eni and Sonatrach through the GSA (Groupement Sonatrach-Agip), now provides green energy to the oil field, thus contributing to the decarburization of the Algerian energy system.
