Gas Natural SDG SA (GAS) may climb in Madrid after agreeing to pay Algeria’s Sonatrach $1.9 billion to settle a dispute and saying the Algiers-based natural gas company may take a stake in its Spanish distributor. The Barcelona-based company’s shares were indicated to open 2.9 percent higher at 13.70 euros as of 8:54 a.m. local time, according to premarket trading. They rose 1.6 percent yesterday before the news, bringing the year-to-date gain to 16 percent. The $1.9 billion payout “will not have an impact” on Gas Natural’s results, Spain’s largest gas supplier said late yesterday in a regulatory filing. The companies analyzed “the possible acquisition by Sonatrach of a minority stake in Gas Natural” and the “possible participation” of the Spanish company in Sonatrach projects, the Barcelona-based company said. The settlement was provoked by an arbitration court ruling in August that recognized the right of Algerian state-controlled Sonatrach to boost the price of gas supplied to Spain since 2007 through the Maghreb Europe pipeline. The Spanish company said on Feb. 22 it had made an additional provision to cover the dispute. Gas Natural buys about a third of its gas from Sonatrach. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at erossthomas@bloomberg.net Todd White in Madrid at twhite2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

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