Algeria Looking for Shale Gas Deposits, Study Nuclear Power, Minister Says
Algeria will start looking for unconventional gas deposits and study the use of nuclear power in an effort to diversify its energy sources, Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi said.
“We are going to intensify exploration in the near future, especially in regions that haven’t been explored much,” Yousfi told delegates at the World Energy Congress in Montreal today. “We are going to do an inventory of unconventional hydrocarbons. The same way that you in Canada are looking for shale gas, we are going to look for oil and gas in shale and compact formations.”
Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has a production capacity of 1.4 million barrels a day of oil and exports about 60 billion cubic meters a year of natural gas. The North African nation relies on oil and gas for the majority of its foreign-currency revenue. It’s the fourth-largest oil producer in Africa and the third-largest supplier of gas to Europe, after Russia and Norway.
“We want to ensure a safe and durable supply of hydrocarbons and petrochemical products to our traditional partners in Europe, Asia and North America,” Yousfi said. He didn’t say when he expects Algeria to reach that goal.
Yousfi also said Algeria wants to speed up the introduction of renewable energy sources, particularly solar, wind and geothermal power. The government will begin studies on nuclear power with a view to adopting it within about 10 years, he said.
Chakib Khelil, Yousfi’s predecessor, said in March that Algeria expects to have a nuclear plant by 2022.
Yousfi was named oil minister in May after Khelil was ousted in a cabinet reshuffle. Yousfi served as oil minister in the 1990s and then foreign minister before becoming Algeria’s ambassador to Canada.
Algeria is the third-smallest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, after Ecuador and Qatar.
To contact the reporters on this story: Frederic Tomesco in Montreal at tomesco@bloomberg.net; or Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net.
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