(Yicai) June 10 -- Tong Petrotech, a Chinese provider of technical support and services for oil and gas exploration and development, said it has secured a USD150 million contract in Algeria.

Tong Petrotech won the bid for two oil and gas service sub-projects from Sonatrach and will provide technical, equipment, daily consumables, and operation and maintenance services for related production links of the Algerian firm's self-operated oil fields in the country, the Xi'an-based company announced late yesterday. The four-year contract will be paid in DZD3.5 billion (USD26.3 million) and the rest in US dollars.

One of the sub-projects is pumping the multiphase mixture of oil, water, and gas produced from related oil fields to processing plants, Tong Petrotech noted. There is no need to build oil-gas-water separation devices and corresponding transmission pipelines at the oil fields, with the company's mixture transmission tech able to effectively raise oilfield production, reduce ground facilities construction costs, and lower energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The other sub-project is providing desalinated brine treatment and injection services for related oil fields, injecting desalinated oilfield water into the underground reservoirs to squeeze out more crude oil, Tong Petrotech said, adding that the technology can extend the lifespan of oil fields and significantly increase the recoverable crude oil.

The new deal was the second equipment supply and service project Tong Petrotech won from Sonatrach over the past eight months. In October, it secured a USD126 million contract, which has not yet been formally signed, to provide early production facilities for newly developed oil fields, compressor equipment for wellhead natural gas recovery, and related services for four years.

Sonatrach is the largest oil company in Africa and 12th in the world, as well as the fourth largest natural gas exporter and second largest liquefied petroleum gas exporter worldwide.

Shares of Tong Petrotech [SHE: 300164] fell 0.4 percent to CNY8.97 (USD1.32) apiece as of 2.05 p.m. today after gaining more than 4 percent in the morning, dragged down by a broad market selloff. Shenzhen's tech-focused ChiNext Index was trading down 2.8 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev