In the year 2002, following the conclusion of the 3rd international concession round organised by the Algerian government, a consortium consisting of Repsol from Spain, RWE Dea and Edison from Italy were awarded a licence for the blocks 351c and 352c in the Reggane North region.

The Production Sharing Agreement was signed on 10 July 2002 with an effective date of 12th January 2003. After statutory relinquishments the license perimeter now covers an area of approx. 4,685 square kilometres.

The purpose of the successfully completed work programs for the two exploration phases carried out to date was the evaluation of the earlier gas discoveries in the region, and the investigation of additional gas potential in Palaeozoic formations. The work programs included extensive seismic surveys, as well as the drilling of 15 exploration and confirmation wells.

In 2012, the Algerian ALNAFT authority has issued the permit to develop the Reggane, Azrafil South-East, Kahlouche, Kahlouche South, Tiouliline and Sali gas fields. Besides RWE Dea AG, which holds 19.5 per cent, the current consortium members are the Algerian state-owned company Sonatrach (40%), as well as Repsol (29.25%) and Edison (11.25%).

RWE Dea Licences Algeria 

The total capital spending for the development project is around 3 billion US dollars. The production period will be more than 25 years. The Field Development Plan foresees a constant production rate of 8 million cubic metres of gas per day over a production period of 12 years.

Field development in the Algerian Sahara will be carried out by the joint company “Groupement Reggane”that has been established by the project partners for this purpose.