Algeria and Norway set to boost cooperation

Algeria and Norway Tuesday agreed on enhancing their bilateral relations through a set of measures, Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

• “Algerian Foreign Minister M. Mourad Medelci and his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Stoere agreed on establishing a permanent and regular political consultation. A legal framework on bilateral cooperation will be achieved in 2009,” the statement said.
• The ministers expressed their satisfaction over the ongoing reactivation of bilateral cooperation relations by opening Norwegian embassy in Algiers in 2007 and Algeria’s embassy in Oslo, Tuesady
• They also talked about possible bilateral cooperation in finance, banking, architecture and agriculture sectors, according to the same statement.
• “Norway highlighted the encouraging presence of its companies in Algeria. More than 32 ventures are planning to make steady investments in Algeria.”
• Norway‘s state-owned oil company Statoil is involved in three major Algerian gas fields while Algeria’s energy group Sonatrach is set to get access to Norwegian offshore gas fields. Sonatrach and Statoil work in partership on an offshore prject in Egypt. The Norwegian company also puts Algeria high on its investment agenda.
• M. Medelci received Statoil’s Chief Executive Official Helge Lund who made a presentation on the company and its important experience as part of cooperation with Sonatrach.
• Statoil holds the second largest foreign investments in Algeria’s oil and gas sector with $2.5 billion. It cooperates with Sonatrach and British BP in Salah and in In Amenas, two of Algeria’s main gas fields.