ALGIERS – The Sonatrach Group and the National Council for Scientific Research and Technology (CNRST) proceeded on Tuesday in Algiers to the signing of a cooperation agreement aimed at promoting applied research for the benefit of the company.
The document was initialed by the secretary general of Sonatrach, Azzedine Djouabri and Sellami Mokhtar, director of studies of the CNRST, in the presence of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, the CEO of Sonatrach, Toufik Hakkar and the president from the CNRST, Mohamed Tahar Abadlia.
In his speech, Mr. Arkab, considered that this agreement makes it possible to “build a winning cooperation for both parties”.
In this sense, he considered that “on the one hand, the national research system, with all its components, needs an economic and social partner to strengthen scientific research and implement academic studies, to on the other hand, the agreement allows Sonatrach to rely on a national research system to develop its production, equipment, structures and improve its services”.
The Minister also explained that the agreement makes it possible to set up joint initiatives, in several sectors, and to create an ecosystem allowing Algerian researchers to achieve applied research, strengthening innovation and creation.
For his part, Mr. Hakkar, indicated that this agreement aims to implement “a new vision to promote research and enhance research work”.
Stressing that Sonatrach is the first national company to initial this type of agreement with the CNRST, Mr. Hakkar said that this agreement should make it possible to respond to “a significant source of problems and constraints” in the energy sector to which facing Sonatrach.
These issues, he explained, can through this agreement, constitute research topics for academics and researchers who will thus participate in bringing added value to companies in the national energy sector.
For the CEO of Sonatrach, it will be a question of responding to multiple issues, citing the processing of seismic data, the modeling of reservoirs, the production, exploitation, transport of hydrocarbons, refining, as well as petrochemicals, but also renewable energies, including hydrogen and biofuels.
The first manager of Sonatrach also recalled that the national hydrocarbon company filed two patents in 2020 and eight patents in 2022, specifying that other patent projects will soon be filed at the level of specialized institutions.
For his part, the president of the CNRST, Mohamed Tahar Abadlia, considered that the two parties have skills to be mobilized in common to create a space for consultation and collaboration “allowing Sonatrach to invest in the cutting-edge fields of scientific research and innovation”.
“The impact that will flow from the cooperation model established will allow us to assess its progress and impact and to recommend its adoption and scaling up on a wider scale,” Mr. Abadlia said.
For the president of the CNRST, the construction of a knowledge economy and its evolution towards an economy that creates wealth, “inevitably” involves research capable of proposing innovative solutions that generate economic progress and social well-being.