TotalEnergies wins Algeria oil and gas licence
18 June 2025
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France’s TotalEnergies, in partnership with QatarEnergy, has been awarded the Ahara oil and gas licence in Algeria, in the North African country’s latest bidding round.
The licensing round, which was launched by Algeria’s National Agency for the Valorisation of Hydrocarbon Resources (Alnaft), is the country’s first using its latest hydrocarbons law, which was issued on 11 December 2019.
The Ahara licence covers an area of 14,900 square kilometres and is located at the intersection of the Berkine and Illizi basins.
TotalEnergies will serve as the operator during the exploration and appraisal phases of this licence, with a 24.5% effective interest, the same share as QatarEnergy (24.5%).
Algeria’s national oil and gas company Sonatrach will retain a majority interest of 51%, in accordance with Algerian law.
Patrick Pouyanne, the chairman and chief executive of TotalEnergies, said: ““TotalEnergies is delighted that its joint bid with QatarEnergy has led to the award of the Ahara licence, allowing us to write a new chapter in our long-lasting partnership with Sonatrach in exploration in Algeria.”
TotalEnergies is a long-standing player in the Algerian energy sector and is present in the country through its various subsidiaries.
The company is active in oil and gas exploration and production through its interests in the Tin Fouye Tabankort and Timimoun gas fields and the Berkine Basin oil fields (blocks 404a and 208), and in liquefied natural gas via supply contracts with Sonatrach.
The latest oil and gas licensing round is Algeria’s first in a decade, and is the first in a series of bidding rounds scheduled over five years.
The bid round offered opportunities at six sites:
- Mzaid
- Toual
- Ahara
- Reggane 2
- Zarafa 2
- Kern El-Kassa 2
Prior to the award of the Ahara licence to TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy, Algerian officials said that 41 companies had expressed interest in the licensing round.
Under Law 13-19, issued on 11 December 2019, Alnaft is responsible for establishing the criteria and rules for prequalifying investors and upstream operators for Algeria’s hydrocarbons sector.
The 2019 law replaced a previous law created in 2005, which governed the last bid round in 2014.
During the previous bid round, only four blocks were awarded out of the 31 offered.
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