Producer
Sonatrach
Algerian national oil company; operates helium extraction at the Arzew LNG complex (Bethioua, Oran Province) and Skikda LNG complex via HELIOS JV with Air Products (25+ year partnership). Algeria holds 8.2 billion cubic meters of proven helium reserves (world's second largest after Qatar's 10.1 Bcm per USGS 2025). Produces ~11 MMcm/yr (~7% of world). Primarily exports to European markets through Air Products. Algeria's Arzew plant went offline for unplanned maintenance in March 2022, contributing to Helium Shortage 4.0.
3
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
2
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
3 inputs Sonatrach supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Sonatrach makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
2 facilities
Sonatrach / HELIOS – Arzew Helium Plant (Algeria) →
DZOran Province
Helium extraction from GL1Z and GL3Z LNG complexes at Bethioua/Arzew, Oran Province. HELIOS JV (Sonatrach + Air Products, 25+ year partnership). Liquid helium plant refines output to Grade A. Capacity ~11 MMcm/yr; ~7% of world supply. Exports primarily to Europe via Air Products. Algeria holds world's second-largest proven helium reserves (8.2 Bcm per USGS 2025). Offline for unplanned maintenance March 2022 — contributed to Shortage 4.0. Skikda LNG complex also holds additional helium capacity.
Sonatrach Arzew LNG and Helium Complex →
DZOran · manufacturing
Helios JV (51% Sonatrach / 49% Air Products + Air Liquide) operates helium recovery at Arzew LNG complex; combined Arzew + Skikda capacity ~16 million m³/year; ~12% of global helium supply.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Natural Gas & LNG (European Supply Critical)
55%Helium (World #3 — HELIOS JV with Air Products)
10%Oil & Condensate
30%Petrochemicals (FERTIAL/ALGAL)
5%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2022
Sonatrach's Arzew LNG complex in Bethioua, Oran Province simultaneously exports natural gas (energy) AND helium (~7% global supply) from the same Algerian Saharan gas fields — creating an unexpected European supply chain dependency on Algeria for both energy and critical scientific/industrial materials. Algeria's Hassi R'Mel gas, piped north to Arzew, is processed at LNG trains for European energy markets AND through HELIOS joint venture (Sonatrach + Air Products) for helium separation and export to European semiconductor fabs and MRI facilities. A single Arzew maintenance shutdown in March 2022 — timed coincidentally with the Russia-Ukraine energy crisis — simultaneously reduced European gas supply AND contributed to global Helium Shortage 4.0, causing laboratory and semiconductor production disruptions. The same Algerian coastal industrial facility serves European energy security AND European technology manufacturing through one gas field. Italy's dependence on Algerian natural gas and France's historical relationship with Algeria means the decolonized energy relationship is embedded in European critical infrastructure at multiple levels.
Gasworld ↗Incident2024
Russia's Gazprom Amur Gas Processing Plant was designed to produce 60 million m³/year of helium — ~25% of then-global supply — making Russia a dominant helium supplier by 2030. Instead, fires in October 2021 and January 2022 delayed startup, Ukraine war sanctions disrupted Western offtake, and actual 2023 production was only ~290 mmcf (5% of global supply). The EU's 14th sanctions package banned Russian helium imports effective September 2024.
Gasworld ↗Origin2023
Sonatrach (Société Nationale pour la Recherche... des Hydrocarbures) was founded in December 1963 — just 15 months after Algerian independence from 130 years of French colonization. France had occupied Algeria in 1830 and French oil companies (Compagnie Française des Pétroles, later Total; other partners) had discovered and developed the Saharan hydrocarbon resources in the 1950s. Algeria under French governance exported Saharan oil and gas during the 1960s under agreements that Algerian nationalists viewed as continuation of colonial resource extraction. In 1971, President Houari Boumediene nationalized 51% of all French oil company operations in Algeria, creating Sonatrach as the controlling national entity with compensation paid to French interests at negotiated values. The nationalization was seen as completing Algeria's economic independence from France. Today, Italy and Spain receive critical natural gas supplies from Sonatrach pipeline exports — and the post-2022 Russia-Ukraine energy crisis significantly increased Algeria's role in European energy security. The former colonial energy relationship has inverted: European energy security now depends on a national oil company created specifically to break French energy control.
Sonatrach ↗