Tunis/Tunisia — Oil company “Shell” has officially informed the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Energy Transition of its decision to hand back the Miskar concession (Gabes) upon licence expiry in June 2022, Director General of Hydrocarbons at the Ministry confirmed Wednesday.
Shell also requested an early hand back of the Asdrubal (Sfax) licence in 2022, before its expiration in 2035.
«The company said it wishes to give up oil and gas exploration and production activities. It could return to Tunisia to invest in alternative energy,» Ben Dali said.
However, Shell’s “Vivo” service stations will continue to operate in Tunisia, he added.
The company announced Tuesday it «will be handing back the Miskar concession to the Government of Tunisia upon licence expiry in June 2022.»
Shell has two gas concessions in Tunisia: 100% of the Miskar field and 50% of the Hasdrubal field, jointly with ETAP.
The two fields provide some 60% of the national gas production in Tunisia.
Shell, which has been present in Tunisia for almost 90 years, sold in 2011 its downstream business but continued upstream exploration. With the 2016 acquisition of BG Group, Shell became the owner of producing offshore gas fields and their supporting facilities, a liquefied petroleum gas extraction plant, pipelines, storage, and export terminals.
