Algerian Minister Seeks US Investors

Algeria’s energy minister Noureddine Boutarfa was in the US this week to drum up investment.

Addressing the 2016 US-Algeria Energy Forum in Houston December 14 attended by ExxonMobil, Anadarko, BP, Hess and others, the minister said that US energy investments had fallen from $600mn in 2010 to $100mn in 2015 while booming US shale production had caused Algerian oil and gas exports to the US to dwindle to a modest $2bn last year.

Anadarko's vice president in charge of Algeria, Allen Sanders, told Algerian state news agency APS in the forum’s margins that his firm would stay the course as an investor in Algeria for several more years. Anadarko is the largest US-owned producer in Algeria but has not been a pushover in the past. 

The minister, accompanied by state utility Sonelgaz CEO Mustapha Guitouni, also said that Algeria will launch a tender soon for investment in 4,000 MW of solar PV power generation.

Mark Smedley