Nigerian billionaire Kola Karim's Arkad wins a $1 billion Algeria gas contract alongside Egypt's PETROJET

Arkad Engineering and Construction, the Italian EPC company acquired by Nigerian billionaire Kola Karim's Shoreline Natural Resources in January 2024, has signed a $1 billion contract for the development of the Hassi Bir Rkaiz oil field in southern Algeria, partnering with Egypt's PETROJET in a deal that represents the most consequential transaction since Karim moved to expand his engineering empire beyond Sub-Saharan Africa, The Africa Report reported on May 6.

The contract, won through a competitive global tender, covers the design, supply, construction, experimental operation and full operation of Phase 2 at the Hassi Bir Rkaiz field. The field is operated by Groupement Hassi Bir Rekaiz, a joint venture between Algeria's state oil company Sonatrach and Thailand's national upstream petroleum company PTTEP. Oil was first discovered at the site in June 2022 and current production stands at approximately 13,000 barrels per day. Phase 2 is designed to significantly expand that output.

PETROJET, one of Egypt's largest state-linked engineering contractors, leads the consortium. Arkad is the Italian partner. The signing ceremony was attended by Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi and Algeria's Minister of Hydrocarbons and Mines Mohamed Arkab. PETROJET chairman Waleed Lotfy and Arkad CEO Ettore Paolini represented their respective companies at the ceremony.

"The contract win follows strong competition in a global tender, reflecting the growing confidence in the capabilities of Egyptian companies," Badawi said in a statement.

What Karim bought in 2024

Arkad was founded in Milan in 2017 and built a track record in oil and gas engineering, procurement and construction across the Middle East and Africa. When Shoreline Natural Resources closed its acquisition of the company on January 30, 2024, it added an internationally credentialed EPC platform to the Shoreline group's existing engineering capabilities in Nigeria, where DBN Energies has spent 35 years providing compression, pipeline and EPC services to Nigeria LNG, Shell and TotalEnergies.

The Arkad acquisition was a deliberate bid by Karim to extend the group's engineering footprint from its Sub-Saharan base into North Africa and the broader international energy market. The Hassi Bir Rkaiz contract is the most visible payoff from that acquisition to date, placing a Karim-owned company at the centre of Algeria's most ambitious infrastructure expansion in decades.

Why Algeria matters right now

Algeria is Africa's largest gas exporter and has emerged as one of the European Union's most important alternative energy partners since Russian gas supplies were effectively cut off following Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The country derives more than 90% of its foreign currency earnings from hydrocarbons and is working systematically to raise gas production from approximately 137 billion cubic metres in 2025 to 200 billion cubic metres by 2030.

To reach that target, Algeria's government under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced a $60 billion investment programme for the 2025 to 2029 period, with approximately 80% of that capital directed at upstream exploration and production. Sonatrach, the state energy company, has been rolling out international tenders across its field development portfolio to bring in foreign technical partners with the EPC capabilities needed to execute the programme at pace.

The Hassi Bir Rkaiz contract sits squarely inside that investment wave. It is exactly the kind of deal that a well-positioned EPC company with credible Middle Eastern and North African experience can win from an Algeria that is spending aggressively to demonstrate to European buyers that it can grow supply reliably and sustainably.

Algeria also launched its Algeria Bid Round 2026 in April, offering 7 new exploration blocks to international investors with bids due by November 26 and awards scheduled for early 2027. The country has also held exploratory discussions with Chevron and ExxonMobil on offshore fields and shale gas, positioning it as one of the most active upstream markets on the continent.

The Shoreline group and Karim's bigger footprint

The Hassi Bir Rkaiz deal expands a business empire that Karim has been building for 3 decades from a commodity trading business in Nigeria that he founded with his mother in 1993, initially mortgaging their home to fund the operation. Koda Trading, as it was originally called, specialised in importing bulk feedstock, raw materials and heavy machinery. It became profitable 2 years after launch and was the foundation from which Shoreline Energy International was created in 1997.

Today Shoreline Natural Resources is one of Nigeria's leading independent oil producers. Its flagship asset, OML 30, was acquired from Shell in 2010 as part of the broader divestment of Shell's onshore Nigerian portfolio, and holds approximately 1.2 billion barrels of 2P oil reserves and 2 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. Current production is approximately 70,000 barrels per day with the infrastructure in place to support materially higher output. Shoreline also operates the Trans Forcados Pipeline, which carries approximately 850,000 barrels per day to the Forcados export terminal.

Beyond Nigeria and now Algeria, Shoreline has built infrastructure and power positions across the continent. Mota Nigeria, a joint venture with Portuguese builder Mota Engil, is constructing the 700-kilometre Kano to Maradi railway linking Nigeria to Niger. Shoreline Power Company delivered over 300 megawatts of power generation to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania over a decade in partnership with FTSE-listed Aggreko. In South Africa, Ingegni, a Shoreline real estate subsidiary, has developed housing projects in Johannesburg. In February 2026, Karim added a producing oil asset in the United States, extending Shoreline's upstream exposure to a fourth continent.

Karim, who holds British citizenship and is of Nigerian Yoruba heritage, has served on the Dean's Council of Harvard Kennedy School and the Africa Advisory Board of the London Stock Exchange. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008 and appeared on Forbes' list of Africa's most powerful businessmen in 2014.

The Algeria contract is the clearest single demonstration yet that the Arkad acquisition was exactly what he intended it to be: a platform for winning large-scale energy infrastructure contracts in markets where Shoreline's Nigeria-centred reputation alone would not have been sufficient.