Category: Algeria

Algiers (Platts)–22Jan2015/608 am EST/1108 GMT Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said late Wednesday he expects the oil price to fall further, adding that Algeria is now in a state of economic "crisis." Speaking on state television, Sellal said Algeria is to defer a number of key infrastructure projects due to the falling oil price as the slump begins to hit the North African country’s economy. "The decline in the oil price will continue and it will not go back to $120/b," he said. "We are in a state of crisis," Sellal said. "Oil is below $50/b, and no one anticipated such a fall." Algeria’s 2015 budget is based on a price of $60/b. "We will continue to invest in social projects, but we will have to cut certain non-essential spending such as trams and railways. These will be postponed," Sellal said. Despite the economic crisis, Sellal said Algeria had […]

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Algiers — Algeria’s financial balances will not be affected by sliding oil prices, Minister of Finance Mohamed Djellab declared Monday in Algiers. In a statement to the Algerian television on the impact of oil price fall on the national economy’s financial balances, the minister stressed that Algeria has "mechanisms likely to cope with such situations" and thanks to the "cautious policy" the country has adopted for more than 10 years. Thanks to its policy, Algeria succeeded to refund its debts and therefore, have a "bigger capacity" to prepare for the new economic picture and accumulate huge foreign exchange reserves, Djellab said while insisting on the contribution of the Oil Revenues Fund to face the oil price drop. Oil prices reached their lowest level in the international market for almost five years. The Minister recognized the impact that the fall of oil prices can have on the national economy, saying, […]

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Algeria raised its oil price for November to the highest in five months after adding fellow OPEC member Venezuela , holder of the world’s largest crude reserves, to the list of its mostly European customers. The North African country will sell its Saharan Blend crude at a premium of 70 cents a barrel to Dated Brent, the North Sea benchmark, according to a price list obtained by Bloomberg. That’s the highest level since June and an increase from 20 cents in October. The first supertanker of Algerian crude arrived in Venezuela on Oct. 25, according to ship tracking data. “It’s primarily due to its sales to Venezuela” that Algeria has been able to raise premiums, Amrita Sen, chief oil market analyst at Energy Aspects in London , said by e-mail today. “Otherwise demand for light crudes has been super weak.” The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ biggest producers, including […]

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Dragon Oil and Enel latest to examine energy potential in Algeria. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 1 (UPI) — Emirati energy company Dragon Oil and its Italian counterpart Enel said Wednesday they were awarded two contracts for oil and gas exploration in Algeria. "This achievement represents a strategic move for Dragon Oil to establish a footprint in another North African country known to be rich in hydrocarbon resources and opportunities," Dragon Oil Chief Executive Officer Abdul Jaleel al-Khalifa said in a statement. Algeria and Enel will work together in the Tinrhert Nord and the Msari Akabli license areas. Dragon offered no estimate of the reserve potential in the license areas in Algeria. In a separate statement, Enel said it’s the third-largest investor in the Algerian natural gas sector. Some of Enel’s legacy operations in the country could be producing 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas per […]

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Norwegian energy company Statoil joins Shell and Algerian energy company Sonatrach in assessing Algerian shale gas potential. UPI/Andy M. Kin/USAF STAVANGER, Norway, Sept. 30 (UPI) — Norwegian energy company Statoil and its counterparts at Shell said Tuesday they’d spend the next two years assessing the shale gas potential in Algeria. "Statoil is entering this shale play to test the prospectivity and commerciality through a step-wise approach," Nick Maden, a senior vice president of exploration for Statoil, said in a statement. "The first exploration phase is expected to last up to 2017 and include the drilling of two wells." Statoil and Shell entered a license in an Algerian shale area alongside state energy company Sonatrach, which holds the controlling interest. Algeria has the tenth-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. […]

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Norwegian energy company Statoil said it was ready to return to work in Algeria more than a year after terrorists stormed a gas facility there. Terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country’s In Amenas natural gas facility in January 2013, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Statoil and its joint venture partners said they’re ready to resume ordinary operations at the plant after implementing new security measures at the facility. "The decision to resume ordinary operations at In Amenas is the result of a thorough and stepwise process of identifying necessary security measures, implementing them and validating that they are in place and operational," Lars Christian Bacher, executive vice president for production at Statoil, said in a statement Monday. In Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year. Algeria’s state-run energy company Sonatrach operates the facility alongside British energy company […]

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LONDON—Algeria has delayed the deadline for its next oil-licence bids by about four weeks, people familiar with the matter said, as companies complain about investment conditions despite recent oil-sector reform. The date set for the submissions to the tender for oil and gas blocks has been reset to Sept. 30 from Sept. 4 previously, people familiar with the matter said. The development comes despite a new Algerian law—passed last year—that improves revenue sharing for companies that invest in difficult blocks, such as the country’s sizable natural-gas shale resources. One main concern for bidders is a clause that allows national oil company Sonatrach to make investment decisions without consulting its foreign partners, according to people at international companies involved in the licensing round. But an Algerian official said the delay was due to the need to handle "numerous applications" for the licensing round. At previous bidding rounds, Algeria has struggled […]

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Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Europe should be reviewed given production declines, the European Council on Foreign Relations said Tuesday. The European Union spends an average $1 billion per day on energy imports. More than 60 percent of the region’s gas supplies come from foreign suppliers, notably Russia, Norway and Algeria respectively. A policy brief published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations said the EU has a short-sighted stance on Algeria, which should be viewed as an "unreliable partner." Mansouria Mokhefi, special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa at the French Institute of International Relations and author of the report, said that, while Europe is eager to diversify an energy sector dependent on Russia, Algeria may not be a good backstop. "Algeria’s sharp rise in domestic energy consumption and concurrent decline in gas production suggests that Algeria […]

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Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Europe should be reviewed given production declines, the European Council on Foreign Relations said Tuesday. The European Union spends an average $1 billion per day on energy imports. More than 60 percent of the region’s gas supplies come from foreign suppliers, notably Russia, Norway and Algeria respectively. A policy brief published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations said the EU has a short-sighted stance on Algeria, which should be viewed as an "unreliable partner." Mansouria Mokhefi, special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa at the French Institute of International Relations and author of the report, said that, while Europe is eager to diversify an energy sector dependent on Russia, Algeria may not be a good backstop. "Algeria’s sharp rise in domestic energy consumption and concurrent decline in gas production suggests that Algeria […]

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