Sonatrach gains $ 76 bn from oil and gas sales in 2008
Algerian state-run energy group Sonatrach, Africa's biggest company by revenue, made $ 76 bn from oil and gas sales
in 2008, the firm's chief executive said, up from $ 57 bn the previous year.
"We reached $ 76 bn," Sonatrach's CEO Mohamed Meziane told, without saying how much Sonatrach's foreign partners
earned from their operations in the North African country.
Sonatrach earned $ 57 bn in 2007 from producing and selling oil and gas, while the state earned a further $ 2 bn from
a windfall tax on the earnings of foreign energy firms operating in Algeria.
British Petroleum, Amerada Hess, Statoil, Anadarko Petroleum, Repsol and Total are the main foreign companies
involved in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Algeria.
OPEC-member Algeria is the world's 15th-biggest oil reserves owner and a major gas supplier to Europe.
It signed deals worth $ 272 mm with four foreign companies to explore for oil and gas.
