Algeria’s state oil firm Sonatrach signed a $1.4 billion exploration and production deal on Tuesday with Italian major Eni, alongside an agreement on renewables. Under the main deal, they will produce 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from a rich onshore field in the Berkine basin, where the two companies have operated together since 2013. It is their first contract since a hydrocarbons law was passed in 2019 to make the market more attractive for foreign investors — but which sparked opposition from Algerians, who said it would flog the nation’s wealth to multinationals. Sonatrach said in a press release carried by official news agency APS that the deal was “another milestone that strengthens the traditional relationship between the two partners.” Sonatrach chief Toufik Hakkar and his Eni counterpart Claudio Descalzi also signed a cooperation agreement on alternative energy technologies including solar energy, lithium production, bio-fuels and hydrogen, it added. Eni has operated in Algeria since 1981 and is Sonatrach’s main foreign partner in the oil and gas sector. The two firms jointly operate the TransMed pipeline that exports Algerian gas to Italy via Tunisia, with a capacity of some 32 million cubic meters per year — four times that of the Medgaz pipeline to Spain. Algeria, Africa’s biggest gas exporter, earns some 90 percent of its state revenues from hydrocarbons.