Oil Market News Is Reassuring For The Algerian Government As 2025 Begins
The new year brought good news for the Algerian government and the country’s economy as a whole, through a clear recovery in oil and gas prices, the country’s main source of income, which is the highest in about three months, as traditional customers in the old continent look to shore up supplies from Algeria.
In this context, crude oil prices rose significantly at the beginning of the new year, reaching the highest levels in two months, after going through a period of instability that reached $70 per barrel of Brent crude several weeks ago, the lowest level in about three years.
The specialized “Oil Brass” website indicates that the price of Algerian crude “Sahara Blend” closed Tuesday’s trading at $78.27 per barrel, as it has not reached this value since October 14, 2024, nearly three months ago.
For Wednesday’s trading, Brent crude, the North Sea blend, the reference oil for Algerian oil, reached $77.18 per barrel by midday Algerian time, up 0.17 percent from the morning opening price (+$0.13).
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trending in the same direction, reaching $74.46 per barrel by midday on Wednesday, up 0.28 percent (+$0.22).
These levels for Brent and WTI are also the highest since mid-October 2024, meaning that Brent has gained nearly $8 per barrel.
Gas prices have been rising for several days on the European market, especially the Dutch market, which is considered the reference for the old continent, and the price of 1 megawatt hour reached more than 50 euros, before falling slightly to 48 euros.
This rise came after fears of supply shortages after Russia’s Gazprom cut off the supply of the European continent through Ukrainian territory completely, as of January 1, 2025.
Sonatrach’s potential additional gas share in the Italian market was signaled by a government plan to increase purchases of liquefied natural gas from Algeria, the US and Libya, estimated at 5 billion cubic meters.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan, as reported a few days ago by La Stampa, includes increasing purchases from the United States in response to new President Donald Trump’s efforts to impose tariffs on European exports by placing an additional request to supply it with liquefied natural gas (GNL) on Washington’s table, to compensate for part of the share that was coming from Russia via Ukraine and stopped a few days ago.
As part of the same plan, La Stampa adds, the Italian government also intends to increase its purchases of GNL LNG from Algeria and possibly Libya, under short-term spot market contracts, without
