Middle East Monitor: Algeria’s shale gas: the people’s fears and the state’s options

Algeria recently witnessed a sharp debate over the mass migration of people to the southern town of Ein Saleh; many people fear that the new inhabitants have relocated in order to exploit the area's natural resource: shale gas. It would not be surprising to have such a debate, whether heated or calm, over a resource that occupies much of the country's economic potential and yet, what is surprising is that many of the country's residents refuse to talk about this particular subject with an open mind.

Many observers have expressed a point of view on this topic even though there was little debate about the desirability of exploiting the resource in the first place. More importantly, this question of what to do with it has not been addressed properly in the media; no one has discussed what the nature of this wealth actually is and how it can be used in our country. Petroleum and shale gas have caused many problems in Algeria's rural and desert areas, which have been plagued with many sectarian conflicts over territory, honour, pride and arms smuggling, among other things.
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