ENERGY AND MINING

Woodside Acquires Agip Mauritania B.V.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. acquired Agip Mauritania B.V., now renamed WEL Mauritania B.V. WEL controls a 35% interest in each of Production Sharing Contract Area A, home of the Banda discovery, and Production Sharing Contract Area B, which contains the Chinguetti and Tiof discoveries. Prior to the transfer of ownership, Agip Mauritania B.V. was fully owned by Italy's oil and gas company, ENI Exploration B.V.
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Petroleum Sector
Sonatrach Partners with J&S Cheniere to Jointly Operate an LNG Carrier

The Algerian oil and gas company Sonatrach signed a partnership agreement with the Swiss-based J&S Cheniere SA to jointly operate the Tenaga Empat LNG carrier. The ship was chartered in August 2003 from the Malaysian firm Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad.
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Tunisian Power Company Gets AfDB Loan

Tunis-based African Development Bank AfDB awarded the Tunisian utility firm STEG a loan of 77.15 million euros to finance the upgrade the company's power distribution infrastructure. The project will focus on older power networks that reach 530,000 households.
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Energy
Despite the Skikda Industrial Accident, Algeria Seeks Bigger Share of the French Gas Market

Despite the recent setback in the Algerian gas industry following the explosion that destroyed parts of the Skikda plant, Algeria continues to work on its ambitious marketing plan. France is now eyed for more liquefied gas delivery in the future.

Authorities of both countries have been discussing the supply of Algerian gas to the French market via Spain, where the gas will be channeled through a pipeline. The issue was the topic of discussion between the Algerian energy minister Chekib Khalil and the French industry minister Nicole Fontaine, during her recent visit to Algiers. Construction of the MedGaz pipeline will start this year, with the goal of moving some 4 billion cubic meters of gas per year starting in 2007, before raising it to 10 billion cubic meters in 2010.

Already the French engineering firm Alstom was selected to build a power station in Fekirina, in the Algerian province of Ain El-Beida. The plant will produce 300 megawatts of electricity and is scheduled to be operational in October 2004.

A tender for the construction of two other similar power plants in Berrouaghia and Hadjrat-Ennouswas was recently launched, and French companies are clearly favored so as to help secure entry for Algerian gas into the French market. Indeed a number of French companies are preparing to work with the Algerian energy rationalization agency (Agence Nationale pour la Promotion et la Rationalisation de l'Utilisation de l'Energie), an agency affiliated to the ministry of energy and mines to help optimize the use of energy in the domestic market.

But the French involvement goes beyond energy as discussions are underway regarding the telecom sector, including television broadcasting, in an effort "to reduce the gap in the digital divide" as Ms. Fontaine stated.
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Morocco Awards Malaysia's Petronas Offshore Oil Exploration Rights

(AFP) - Morocco awarded last month Malaysian national oil firm Petronas offshore exploration rights along its Atlantic coast, the energy and mining ministry announced.

The deal gives Petronas an eight-year permit valid for exploration and geophysical research in a 14,000-square-kilometer (5,600-square-mile) area off the coast of the capital Rabat.

At a pact-signing ceremony, Petronas president Hassan Bin Marican said a branch of his company would be opened in Rabat within a few weeks.

Moroccan Energy and Mining Minister Mohamed Boutaleb said there was "some potential to explore" in the offshore area, called the Rabat-Sale Haute Mer, the official Moroccan news agency Map reported.

In a separate announcement in Kuala Lumpur, Petronas said the exploration agreement gave it a 75-percent stake over the Rabat-Sale Haute Mer block, while Morocco's National Office for Oil Research and Exploitation would hold the remaining 25 percent.

Since the discovery of oil in eastern Morocco in 2000, the government has increased oil prospecting and drilling both on- and offshore, and has signed over a dozen contracts with international oil companies.

Morocco continues to import nearly all of its oil from the Middle East, spending an estimated 1.5 billion dollars annually.

Petronas, founded in 1974, has operations in over 30 countries.
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Sonatrach and Egypt in Joint Venture Talks

The Algerian petroleum company Sonatrach is in negotiation with Egyptian officials for the establishment of a joint venture that would operate in oil and gas exploration and production in Algeria, Egypt and elsewhere.

The talks were unveiled by Sonatrach's CEO Mohamed Meziane, who was traveling to Egypt. Meziane also informed his Egyptian peers of the possibilities of investing in Algeria's industrial sector, citing the example of the liquefied hydrocarbons unit, which output is purchased by Egypt. Sonatrach sells more than one million tons of liquefied petroleum gas through two contracts.

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