Oil and gas revenue to fall $10 bln this year, says Algeria’s energy minister

Algeria expects its oil and gas revenue to fall to $23 billion this year from $33 billion in 2019, energy minister Abdelmadjid Attar told state radio on Tuesday.

OPEC member Algeria’s revenues from oil and gas sales were at $60 billion in 2014, before a sharp drop in prices.

“We are in a difficult economic situation,” Attar, who took over as Algeria’s new energy minister earlier this year, told state radio.

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Algeria passed a new energy law in November 2019 to make its oil sector more attractive, but has not published the texts to implement it. Attar said international investors have been awaiting these to decide whether to come to Algeria.

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The texts will be published before September, he said. Fifty small oil and gas discoveries have been made that need to be developed, he added.

“Foreign firms are welcome to work with (Algerian state energy company) Sonatrach on these fields,” Attar said.