MADRID, April 20 (UPI) -- Spanish energy company Repsol announced Monday it's made a natural gas discovery in Algeria, its third in an area bordering war-torn Libya.
The company is the operator in a consortium that includes French energy company GDF Suez and Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach. The company said gas flowed from a discovery at the so-called TESO exploration well in the Sud-Est Illizi block, where it's already had a "very successful exploration campaign."
The discovery is the third in the same region. The Spanish energy company said gas flowed at a test rate of 6.1 million cubic feet per day.
"Repsol aims to drill at least four more additional wells in order to appraise the previous discoveries within the Sud-Est Illizi block," it said in its statement on the discovery.
Algeria has the 10th largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest supplier to Europe. Its exports have been in decline, however, because of lagging foreign investments.
Terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida, stormed the country's In Amenas natural gas facility in January 2013, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Norwegian energy company Statoil and its partners suspended work at the facility along the Libyan border for more than a year following the attack.
Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year.
