ALGERIA - Profile - Abdelhak Bouhafs.

The President/CEO of Sonatrach since January 2000, Bouhafs until then was advisor to President Bouteflika on petroleum matters with a focus on natural gas. He took over from Abdelmajid Attar, who had become president/CEO of Sonatrach in 1997 to replace Nazim Zouioueche. In January 2000 Attar was made advisor to the Energy and Mines Ministry.

Bouhafs was president/CEO of Sonatrach from 1989 to 1995. He was behind the "Promos" plan which called for a restructuring and modernisation of Sonatrach and presided over the plan's first phase from late 1993. Under the plan, Sonatrach as a group was to operate commercially in both the upstream and downstream branches of the petroleum industry. It was to operate both in Algeria and abroad and throughout the energy chain as well as in chemicals and associated services.

The plan's third phase, from 2000, was to turn Sonatrach into an integrated and international group with diversified businesses. These were to include "new activities" such as mining and agro-industries.

Having worked closely with Khelil at the presidential office in 1999, Bouhafs has followed the energy minister's advice for Sonatrach to invest in Latin American petroleum ventures. Thus, in May 2000 Sonatrach joined a consortium in Peru to transport and distribute natural gas, with the firm to contribute $69m in the JV's construction spending of almost $700m. The project is to have a 697 km pipeline built from the Camisea gas fields, in eastern Peru, to the western coastal cities of Lima and Callao. The pipeline is to cross the Andes mountains. In the first phase, it will have a capacity of 6.5 MCM/day and later it this will be raised to 13 MCM/day. The consortium is to have a parallel pipeline to carry 7,250 tons/day of gas liquids and will have a length of 575 km.

The consortium, which in October won a 33-year concession for its project from the Peruvian government, consists of the following: Techint of Argentina (operator with 30%), Pluspetrol of Argentina (19.2%), Hunt Oil of the US (19.2%), Grana y Montero of Peru (12%), Sonatrach (10%), and SK Group of South Korea (9.6%). The consortium was the only bidder for the project and offered to invest a total of almost $1.5 bn. Sonatrach is also to act an an engineering advisor for the pipelines' construction. The wellhead price of the natural gas is $1/m BTU. The consortium will be allowed to sell the gas and liquids at a profit mutually agreed with Peru's regulator for oil and gas projects and contracts, Perupetro.

Sonatrach's aim is also to participate in the venture developing the untapped Camisea fields, Cashiriari and San Martin which are said to contain 250 BCM of natural gas and 60m tons of condensates. Perupetro is in charge of the fields which were discovered in the 1980s by Shell. But Shell abandoned the fields in mid-1998. The main fields' developer under a 40-year agreement is a consortium of Pluspetrol (the operator with 40%), Hunt Oil (40%) and SK Corp. (20%). The fields are to produce 450 MCF/day of gas and 50,000 b/d of condensates in the initial phase. They will extract a total of almost 8 TCF of gas during the 40-year period, leaving 3 TCF in the reservoir. First phase investment will be $400m for four years. Total investment will exceed $2 bn.

Sonatrach has an agreement with Baghdad to develop a major oilfield in Iraq after the UN sanctions have been lifted, and will accept to have a Indian partners in this. It would move into Iran if and when E&P terms improve. The company holds 40% in a block in Yemen operated by Agip of Italy. Sonatrach's overseas interests include a share in a JV to build a new LNG receiving/regasification terminal in the northern Spanish city of Ferrol, with its partners there being Spanish companies. It also holds equity in a venture to have a propylene plant built near Tarragona in Spain. A Sonatrach agreement with Gaz de France is to result in upstream and downstream gas ventures in Europe. Sonatrach is considering acquiring equity in a refining venture in Canada with Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.