Category: Algeria

The Algerian government views shale oil and natural gas as a way to add diversity to its energy sector, Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said. Yousfi met with visiting U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in Algiers to discuss energy developments in the country, more than a year after terrorists stormed the In Amenas gas facility in the country’s eastern desert. "Algeria is currently evaluating the potential for shale oil and gas, attempting to determine the quality of the rock while studying all potential environmental impact," he said Sunday. "It is absolutely vital for us to use all possible resources to achieve energy security." Moniz, for his part, said U.S. companies experiencing success in the shale sector were interested in tapping into the Algerian energy market. Algeria has the tenth-largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe. Its exports have […]

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Algeria’s Cabinet has announced it will move forward with the exploitation of the country’s large shale gas reserves. The statement carried by the state news agency Wednesday night gave the green light to finding foreign partners to exploit the reserves. According to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Algeria is third globally after China and Argentina in technically recoverable shale gas reserves with 707 trillion cubic feet (20 trillion cubic meters) of reserves. It has yet to be determined if the reserves are commercially viable. The state said 11 wells will be drilled over the next seven to 13 years. Algeria’s once rich oil and natural gas reserves have been declining in recent years.

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Attack on troops tasked with protecting polling stations appeared to carry message for returning president Insurgents ambushed an Algerian military convoy in the mountainous Kabylie region, killing 14 soldiers, the state news agency reported Sunday. The attack came two days after Algeria’s presidential election . The attack near the village of Iboudraren began at 10 p.m. Saturday with 11 soldiers being killed immediately and another three succumbing to their wounds, the agency said. A local official said a large group of insurgents hid on both sides of the road and opened fire with automatic weapons as the military bus drove by. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The region has been the site of past clashes, including one three years ago that killed 13 soldiers at an army post. That attack was claimed by the Algeria-based Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. There […]

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With a presidential election on Thursday, most Algerians see a fourth term for the incumbent, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, as a foregone conclusion. Mr. Bouteflika has already been in power 15 years. In the last election in 2009, he was returned to office with an improbable 90 percent of the vote. So tightly controlled is this North African country that, virtually alone in the region, it passed on the Arab Spring. Yet even as the re-election of Mr. Bouteflika, 77, appears inevitable, his insistence on running again, despite his apparent frail health, has increased popular exasperation, revealed unusual signs of division within the ruling elite and provoked an unlikely show of solidarity among opposition parties, both secular and Islamic, which have united in a call to boycott the election. Exceptionally, a nascent urban middle-class youth movement, Barakat! (“Enough!” in Arabic), styled along the lines of the protests organized through […]

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Algeria called on oil and natural gas companies to prepare for an August auction for exploration and exploitation of natural resources in the country. Sid Ali Betata, director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Hydrocarbon Resources, announced the call for tenders Tuesday, the official Algeria Press Service reported. The announcement comes one year after terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country’s In Amenas natural gas facility, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Algeria has the 10th largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe. Its exports have been in decline, however, because of lagging foreign investments. In Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year, its operators Sonatrach, BP and Statoil said. In terms of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Algeria had 12.2 […]

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Algeria’s oil and gas production is expected to increase in the coming five years, reversing the decline in volumes seen in recent years, according to state oil and gas company Sonatrach. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the company’s general assembly earlier this week, Sonatrach head Abdelhamid Zerguine said Algeria’s hydrocarbons production was "showing signs of recovery." Algeria’s crude oil production stood at 1.14 million b/d in November, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and industry officials. This represents a drop of around 15% from average production of 1.3 to 1.4 million b/d for most of the period from 2005 to 2010. According to the US government’s Energy Information Administration Algeria’s gas production was 2.9 Tcf in 2011, having declined steadily since 2005 as its larger, more mature fields depleted. Zerguine said the decline in output seen over the last decade was […]

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