[ecr] The announcement follows an intensive week of discussions in Niamey, culminating in the signing of official meeting minutes between Sonatrach and SONIDEP, with representatives from Niger's Ministry of Petroleum in attendance.

The parties agreed to establish two sub-committees to assist Niger in initiating this ambitious development project.

Held last Monday, the meeting took place in the presence of Niger's Minister of Petroleum, Sahabi Oumarou, and Algeria's Ambassador to Niamey, Ahmed Saadi.

The minutes provide for the creation of a sub-commission for refining and petrochemicals, as well as another responsible for project management, procurement, and legal framework, according to the statement, which specifies that “this technical assistance that Sonatrach will provide to the Niger constitutes a crucial step for the development of the petroleum and petrochemical sector in Niger.”

Speaking on this occasion, Sonatrach's representative, Ramdane Ayache, emphasized “the importance of forming a work team for this project, which will undergo theoretical training at the Algerian Petroleum Institute (IAP) under the public Group, to learn how to deal with different situations in terms of project management.”

Ayache also stressed the importance of establishing a proper legal framework for contract preparation.

For his part, Sonidep's Director General, Colonel Ali Seibou Hassane, welcomed this collaboration sealed for the benefit of Niger’s company, which he described as a “young company compared to Sonatrach's long experience,” adding that “the latter is expected to save time in achieving the project's objectives.”

 

“Sonatrach’s expertise will enable speeding up the development of local capacities,” he said.

 

For his part, Niger’s minister of Petroleum thanked Algeria and Sonatrach’s experts for the quality of exchanges, praising the close cooperation between the two countries.  [/ecr]