Ould Kaddour: “America and Saudi Arabia Have Flooded World Market With Oil And Prices Will Hopefully Pick Up Anew”

The Sonatrach CEO, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, said that many adverse factors are affecting oil prices, prompted by the United States and Saudi Arabia, with the latter’s dumping the world market with additional production and raising inventories and thus bringing down crude prices.
He stressed that Sonatrach will henceforth focus on investing more in the gas sector so as to compensate for the shocks caused by oil crises.
“The situation of the oil market is subject to the logic of stocks, the higher the output, the lower the prices, and vice versa,” said Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, on the sidelines of the signing of a contract on Monday for the development of the southern gas field of Gassi Touil with the involvement of the two companies Cosider Canal and the National Petroleum Works Company at Sonatrach’s headquarters in Hydra district in upper Algiers.
According to Mr. Ould Kaddour, there are two or three players in control of this situation, namely the United States and Saudi Arabia, as they are dumping the world market (with additional oil production), and this contributed to a hike in stocks and an ensuing drop in oil prices.
Mr. Ould Kaddour pointed out that the role of OPEC is to work for the stability of the world market and for the balance between supply and demand with a view to reaching prices ranging between 70 and 80 dollars per barrel.
“I think this stability (between $ 70 and $ 80 a barrel) will come soon … everyone will be content with this hovering situation, including the producers, because the price of a barrel of $ 50 does not give the possibility of continuing investment and exploring new energy reserves,” he stated to this effect.
“I think there will be a positive reaction to the markets and we hope this reset situation will occur as early as possible.”
According to Mr Ould Kadour, the current situation of the world oil market requires from Algeria to contemplate investing more in gas, to make off for the current disruptions caused by the volatile oil market.
He further disclosed that the month of January will witness the signing of a deal to expand the oil port of Skikda, eastern Algeria, for the construction of a large LNG shipping platform.
According to him, the planned LNG exports will witness a solid hike after the completion of the expansion of the port of Skikda to allow gas tankers docking and thus shipping greater quantities of LNG.
Moreover, Mr Ould Kaddour expected the drilling of the first well in the framework of offshore exploration for oil on the Algerian coast, during the first six months of this year together with the Italian “Eni” and French “Total” energy companies.