Hydrocarbons regulation authority keeps mum about Algeria’s recent big oil discovery

Energy experts have dubbed the recent statement made in Illizi by Algerian Energy and Mines, Youcef Yousfi who announced a big oil discovery near Hassi Messaoud, as politically tainted and lacking precise technical explanations owing to Algeria’s own failing technological know-now in this field of endeavour.

The energy experts wonder about the expected future oil explorations at the Hassi Messaoud oil field in Southern Algeria saying that they are now estimated at 9 billion barrels.

According to reliable world estimates, the output of the Hassi Messaoud oil field stands at around 5 billion oil barrels and presently this oil field has reached 400 thousand barrels per day, that is, a third on average of Algeria’s allottedproduction quota within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Algeria’s national energy firm Sonatrach has discovered a major oil field with almost 1.3 billion barrels of deposits in the south of the country, Energy and mines Minister Youcef Yousfi announced Saturday.

The find near Amguid Messaoud is “one of the most important that Sonatrach has made in the past 20 years,” he told the local press during a visit to the site.

The discovery was made 112 kilometres (70 miles) from Hassi Messaoud, the largest oil field in Algeria.

He added the state oil and gas company, Sonatrach, will rely on unconventional techniques to extract 50 percent of the reserves, including hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

The field will be exploited in the next three to four years following the necessary studies, the report added.

Algeria, an energy giant in Africa that already is one of the largest natural gas suppliers to Europe, had been concerned about declining oil reserves.