Algeria's national petrochemicals firm Sonatrach and Italy's Eni have started production at the HDLE/HDLS oil field in the Berkine Basin at 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, the Algerian company announced on Monday in a statement.

The statement indicated that the oil field is expected to increase output to 17,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day with new drilling in 2023.

In recent months, the EU has been eyeing Algerian gas as a cheaper alternative to Russian energy sources.

Sonatrach announced in late October that it had signed deals worth $600 million with Italian firms for the extraction and transport of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The Algerian company said in a statement that it concluded a $400 million deal with Italian company Tecnimont for the construction of an LPG plant scheduled to be completed in three years.

The plant is expected to produce an output of "1,000 tonnes per day of LPG, 300 tonnes per day of condensate and 8.7 million cubic metres per day of gas."

It further added that Algerian pipeline company ENAC will build a 65-kilometer (40-mile) conduit to link the plant to an existing transportation network in the country's east.

On another note, an association owned by Sonatrach and France's TotalEnergies signed a $170-million deal with Italian firm Arkad to build a unit linking 24 new wells to an existing plant.

Sonatrach also announced it concluded three other small-scale contracts for LPG-related infrastructure and equipment.

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