Algeria: RND party to act as “firefighter” to contain anti-shale gas uprising in the south

The RND party organized on Monday evening a closed-door seminar at the headquarters of the party, in the district of Ben Aknoun in upper Algiers, devoted to the burning issue of the projected exploitation of shale gas which sparked off widespread protests in the Algerian South by the local populations.

The seminar witnessed the presence of the party’s MP’s representing the South and the high plateaux as well as  numerous specialists and experts in the energy field, reflecting the authorities’ intention to mobilize  political parties to contain the ongoing protests in the South of the country against the planned exploitation of shale gas there.

Well-informed sources told “Echorouk” that the broad-based meeting which was not opened to the media, was attended by the RND party Secretary-General Abdelkader Bensaleh and Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi as well as members of the party’s Secretariat and the deputies representing the southern and high plateaux regions in addition to a number of Senators and hydrocarbons experts linked to the party.

According to the same sources, the objective of the meeting was to provide technical explanations to deputies and specialists and those in attendance by energy Minister Youcef Yousfi, in order to sensitize and inform the national public opinion, especially in the South, in view of the continuing rejection of shale gas exploitation particularly in the southern in Salah region in Tamenrasset province.

The party’s spokesperson Mrs Nouara Saadia Djaâfar, affirmed that the meeting was marked by a frank and direct discussion between the energy Minister and the deputies and specialists in the hydrocarbons field, with the outlines of government’s energy policy being amply highlighted in order to shed all the light on the vexed issue by clearing all false interpretations purported here and there by some ill-informed people not cognizant with the technical studies of the project.

Mrs Nouara Djaâfar also said that the Algerian citizens must trust the national company Sonatrach, which will be in charge of this project, noting in this respect that there are probably some people who tend to forget that this national company has “significant expertise and a telling experience in this field of endeavour”, as she put it.