Global Energy Review
Algeria
Algeria's crude-oil capacity, at 1.2 mn bpd, is at an all-time high and there are plans to increase it between now and 2010. The Algerians are considerably over their OPEC quotas and are pressing for a substantial percentage increase.
Algeria also has the highest proportion of NGL output of any OPEC country: around 0.8 mn bpd, or just over 40% of total liquids' output. This, too, is set to rise, though not by as much as crude-oil production. The state oil company, Sonatrach, has announced plans to double the production of all liquids between 2002 and 2020 to more than 3 mn bpd, with an intermediate target of around 2.5 mn bpd in 2010.
Algeria's upstream sector has attracted widespread foreign interest, ranging from oil majors like BP to small independents. In just over a decade, foreign companies have come from a position of having almost no production to accounting for nearly half of Algerian output.
Exploration prospectivity is spread across all three main producing areas and there appear to be several grounds for believing that Algeria's present oil reserves estimate of 9.2 bn bbl is a considerable underassessment. It seems quite likely that a similar level of new recoverable reserves will be identified over the next decade or so.
The large amount of gas exploration also seems likely to identify more NGL resources. The Ministry of Energy and Mines has suggested that the output of gas liquids could reach 2 mn bpd by about 2015. This seems a little high, but there is no reason why NGL output should not be slightly in excess of 1 mn bpd in 2010.
Production Outlook
Crude oil production is forecast as follows:
| 2003 | 1.1 mn bpd |
| 2010 | 1.7 mn bpd |
Algeria, Reserves & Production, 2003
| Reserves: | 9.2 bn bbl |
| Reserves remaining: | 22.3 years |
| Production capacity: | 1.15 mn bpd |
| OPEC Quota (Nov '03): | 0.78 mn bpd |
| Production: | 1.13 mn bpd |
| Consumption: | 0.20 mn bpd |
| Net trade: | 0.93 mn bpd |
| Peak output | * |
| Peak year | * |
Production 1991-2003
OET Archive
External links
- http://www.sonatrach.dz/
- Reach 4 Algeria [ http://www.reach4algeria.com/ ]
- Algerian Embassy in Korea - Hydrocarbons [ http://www.algerianemb.or.kr/eng/hydrocarbons.htm ]
