Europe Made Mistakes By Abandoning Long-Term Energy Contracts, Projects With Algeria

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune held private talks with Charles Michel, President of the European Council, at the Presidential Palace, Monday morning in El Mouradia, before supervising extensive discussions between the Algerian and European delegations, according to a statement published by the presidency on social media.

On the Algerian side, the meeting was attended by Ramtane Lamamra, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Abdelaziz Khallaf, Director of the Office of the Presidency of the Republic, Mohamed Arkab, Minister of Energy and Mines, and Kamal Rezig, Minister of Trade, according to the same source.

In this regard, the analyst and economic expert, Mustapha Mekideche, believes that the successive visits of European officials to Algeria have a clear message, which is that Algeria in the short, medium and long terms will be the energy destination, being a reliable supplier of energy because it has enormous capabilities and reserves.

Mustapha Mekideche, Vice-President of the Economic and Social National Council (CNES), explained that Europe made several mistakes in its dealings with Algeria, and now it must correct these mistakes and turn a new page in relations.

“Algeria was historically the first to supply gas to Europe, and it has always been a reliable supplier with long contracts on the one hand, and ensuring supplies on the other, and the proceeds from long contracts allow the financing of investments, but Europe years ago started a campaign to abandon long gas contracts, although it is in its interest to maintain them. This has been proven over time”, he added.

“One of the mistakes of the old continent in the energy sector is that it did not contribute and did not care about financing the trans-Saharan gas pipeline, which would have transported this energy resource from Nigeria through Niger to Algeria and then to Europe, in addition to the French veto against the transit gas pipeline to the Oriental-Pyrénées Mountains, known as the MidCat”.

“It can be said that Europe has set a trap and it has fallen into it, given the current gas crisis and its consequences. Therefore, Europe made mistakes toward Algeria and they must be corrected. We have huge reserves of conventional and unconventional energy similar to shale gas, estimated at 22,000 billion cubic meters in addition to hydrogen and solar energy”.

“Therefore, in the short, medium and long term, there is no escape for Europe from Algeria in terms of energy”.

Mustapha Mekideche did not rule out that the visit of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to Algeria is also related to the crisis with Spain and gas prices.

He stated that Europe has adopted ceilings on the prices of gas that it buys from Russia, and most likely, behind this visit of Charles Michel, Europe wants to know how Algeria will react on this issue, especially the renegotiation with Spain on prices.

“Algeria wants to bring gas prices to the level of the international market and the new reality of the market, without any preferential treatment with Spain”, he confirmed.

Mekideche concluded that there was a process of deception regarding alternative energies and dependence on the European continent, but the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis with Russia revealed that Europe returned to using coal and relying on nuclear reactors, and all this promotion, according to him, was aimed at reducing the prices of oil and gas.