Algeria’s state-run energy company, Sonatrach, plans to invest around $60 billion in boosting the country’s hydrocarbon production, according to the news agency APS.
The money will be invested over the next five years, APS said, citing the country’s energy minister Youcef Yousfi.
Around 57 per cent of the allocated funding will be spent on exploration and production activities, designed to increase the country's reserves and optimize its exploitation of its hydrocarbon deposits.
It is hoped that the investment will help to increase research activity by more than 40 per cent in this year alone.
Algeria’s foreign investment laws help to attract companies from other regions to set up operations in the country—activity Algeria hopes will continue to grow over the next five years, boosted by the investment.
Algeria is the world’s fourth largest exporter of LNG and the ninth largest oil exporter. It is also the third largest exporter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Oil and gas currently account for around 97.5 per cent of Algeria’s export earnings.
With a turnover of almost $64.9 billion in 2008, Sonatrach operates in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US. It currently employs 41,204 people worldwide.
