Algeria Presses Slow Button on Law Reform

After hinting two weeks ago that a revision of Algeria's basic hydrocarbons law was 'under consideration', the country's energy minister Mustapha Guitouni has now sought to temper expectations of new legislation entering force in the coming months.

Speaking in Algiers, Guitouni said October 16 that the first draft of the revised hydrocarbons law would be finalised in June 2018.

Quoted by state news agency APS, he added: "This does not mean that the project to amend the law on hydrocarbons will be finalised in June 2018, but rather the first versions of this revision will be finalised by that date." The minister spoke on the margins of an open day held by upstream regulator Alnaft, whose chief Arezki Hocini also said it would take at least six months to define the key aspects of the revised law. 

Two weeks ago Guitouni told APS that an overhaul was needed as Algeria's last four or five recent licensing rounds had failed to draw in investors. Later prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia said the state would not cede on the issue of allowing foreign equity in upstream partnerships to exceed 49%.

Mark Smedley