PM Sellal: “Covert destabilization maneuvers won’t work neither in Salah nor elsewhere”

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal has affirmed that “there are some shadowy people who have been striving to create skepticism and sedition among the Algerians by harping covertly on the regional affiliations to undermine the national unity and cohesion of the Algerian people.”

“Some ill-advised and malevolent circles sought in vain to spark off sedition in the north, then in the south of the country notably in Ghardaia, Ouargla and Djanet,” he added.

“After these successive failures, they are trying now to sow trouble in In Salah, but they will not succeed in their nefarious endeavour, because the Algerian people are firmly united and Algeria is today a stable country which exports peace and security,” stressed the Prime minister. 

Taking the floor on Tuesday during a rally held at 24th-February Hall in Arzew, western Algeria, to mark the double anniversary of the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the creation of the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), Mr Sellal reaffirmed that there is no exploitation of shale gas for the time being but only studies and exploration underway.

“The issue of shale gas has been widely debated at the level of the government and the Parliament and we have set stringent conditions for the future exploitation of this unconventional energy,” he noted.

Mr Sellal also pointed out  that “Algeria has not halted the exploitation of oil or conventional gases,” announcing by the same token that the national hydrocarbon company SONATRACH “discovered, last week, a large deposit of oil in Touggourt, and other oil reserves in Ghardaia and hydrocarbons in Al Bayadh a few weeks ago.”

“The role of the government consists in conducting proper assessment studies of the country’s overall shale gas reserves in expectation of their exploitation by future generations if they desire so,” he said, adding that the relevant studies may last two to six years.

In this connection, Mr Sellal emphasized that initial studies revealed that Algeria has “the world’s second or third largest shale gas reserves,” and stressed the necessity to “confirm these studies and make sure that this nonconventional energy has no adverse impact on the environment or the citizens’ health.