Mubasher: Sonatrach has signed an agreement with Vitol Group to ship crude to Italy to be processed and sent back to Algeria as refined products.

This is the first deal of its kind in the Algeria, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with the aim to reduce the costly fuel imports which total around $2 billion per year, as reported by Bloomberg.

The new agreement will enable Algeria to stop buying refined fuels in three years, when the deal expires the Hassi Messaoud refinery in the North African nation is set for completion, according to Ahmed Fettouhi, the vice president of the Algeria’s state-run energy producer Sonatrach.

The new refinery will have an annual processing capacity of 5 million tons of oil, or the equivalent of about 100,000 barrels a day.