Water Resources Minister, Houcine Nassibe calls for calm dialogue on shale gas
Houcine Nassibe, Algeria's water minister. Photo: copyright
Minister of Water Resources, Houcine Nassibe, expressed astonishment of the exaggeration and concerns that were expressed regarding the exploitation of shale gas in Algeria, saying that these concerns are premature because Algeria -ATP- is still in the exploration phase of the non-traditional hydrocarbons, calling for a calm and reassuring dialogue to discuss the subject.
Houcine Nassibe, explained in an interview with APS, that Algeria is still in the exploration phase for non-traditional hydrocarbons, and works will commence in the long term, which requires a calm dialogue and substantive discussions not hype.
“A ministerial committee comprising both energy and water resources ministers was appointed to deal with all aspects relating to the exploration of non-traditional hydrocarbons. Committee’s work, began two years ago, and has been prepared in all transparency.”
“Places of drilling were created to explore shale gas far from residential areas, as well as places of agricultural and industrial activities, to exclude any impact on the population or on industrial or agriculture activities, and on the environment as a whole”, calling for the need to prepare from now for the exploitation of shale gas to control in the future the extraction technologies, which will notice a rapid development, and would represent an alternative energy for conventional energies without destroying neither water nor environment.
“Areas that are rich with shale gas are located under a depth of between 3,000 and 4,000 meters below the Alpine aquifers, which in turn lies below the depth of between 400 and 2,500 meters. These layers in turn are protected by very thick geological layers.”