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Thursday, October 3, 2013
Gas production in Algeria is expected to double over the next seven to 10 years according to the country’s Energy and Mines Minister Youcef Yousfi. The minister said the increase will come from a number of significant oil and gas finds in maturing and new fields.
Yousfi said that the new discoveries and improved efficiencies meant Algeria was pumping crude oil at a rate of 1.2 million bpd and expected to increase its gas production despite falling demand from European customers.
“For the medium term, I think, our production will more than double from the existing one,” he said to reporters on the sidelines of an industry event taking place in London. Discoveries have been made in the maturing Berkine and Illiza basins. The country also has the potential for a significant gas shale industry, with studies finding more than 700 Tcf of shale gas he said.
“Concerning the new regions in the south west, for the first time, this is a region that is not explored at all, two weeks ago we made a discovery of gas and oil and we are in the process of evaluation,” Yousfi added.
The government is also trying to attract new investment and toward that end the government amended its hydrocarbon law, although according to analysts the new law does not go far enough to encourage new investment in light of the security void discovered in the country when the In Amenas gas facility was attacked in January.
Despite this Algeria is still working on the next round of exploration licenses. Yousfi did not offer any details on the round but did say largely unexplored offshore areas could be included.
“We are concentrating on onshore… Also we are thinking of offshore. We’re going to have our first drilling offshore during next year maybe,” he said.
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