Algerian PM demands detailed fact sheets of private security companies

The Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmaleh Sellal has requested fro: the energy ministry thorough and detailed information about the private security companies operating in the Algerian and foreign oil firms based southern Algeria.

The move aims at drawing new measures likely to assure the safety of foreign and local workers in the southern oil fields.

To recall, the Algerian authorities have granted permits in 1996 to private people, mostly retired high- ranking officers of the national military army to create their own security companies.

These companies can seal contracts with local and foreign oil companies with the view to assuring their security of the oil fields and residential camps. They have the right also to recruit people provided they have enlisted in the army because they should carry arms during their duties.

The latest terrorist attack on the gas facility of Tigantourine that claimed the lives of several Algerian and foreign workers, has forced the Algerian authorities to reconsider the security measures inside these strategic sites.

Reliable sources have revealed to Echourouk that the interior ministry summoned the governors of Illizi, Adrar, Ouargla , Tamanrasset ,Laghouat and Bechar to forward a detailed fact sheet of the companies including their managers, the number of the personnel, their scope of action and the arms used by the wardens.