Algeria Press Service: This is What First Evaluations of Algeria's Shale Gas Reveal

Algeria possesses 4,940 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of shale gas reserves, including 740 TCF are recoverable on the basis of a 15% recovery rate, indicate the assessments by Sonatrach and international oil companies in five Sahara basins, a source at oil group told APS.

These recoverable reserves were calculated for the prospects of Ahnet, Timimoun, Mouydir, Illizi and Berkine.

With 15% recovery rate, Algeria has the world's fourth largest technically recoverable resources, just after the United States (which RT varies between 20 and 50% depending on the deposit), China and Argentina, the source added, citing the 2013 report of the international Energy Agency on shale gas.

As for the reserves in the liquid form (oil, condensate...) in the five mentioned basins, they stand at 248 billion barrels.

The same source indicated that these estimates of unconventional hydrocarbon reserves were obtained through an action plan for the evaluation of shale gas, which began in 2009 and spread up to 2018-2020. MORE