Algeria is the largest country in continent. A Trans-Sahara road connecting the north and the south of Algeria (nearly 3,000km) has existed for several years. It is also part of the road network planned for linking the African countries between them.

“Thanks to efforts granted to build a modern and efficient oil and gas industry and in accordance with the requirements of the global energy market, Algeria has an important place on the international energy scene. The high number of prestigious companies operating in Algeria and the considerable level of the foreign direct investments in the Algerian hydrocarbon sector are significant in this regard,” said Mr. Cherif Chikhi – Algerian Ambassador to Vietnam.

Regarding the liquefied natural gas, it is essentially exported to the US. The Algerian crude oil is sought for being lightweight and low of sulfur content. It is especially sold to countries in Europe, given the geographical proximity of the continent (the south of Spain is barely at 200km from the Algerian coasts).

Algeria is constantly working to increase its refining capacities in order to meet the domestic demand and to examine the export opportunities in foreign markets. Algerian exports revenues, estimated at US$74 billion in 2012, come mainly from the hydrocarbons.

However, the Ambassador said that the non-oil and gas exports still remain very low. Algeria, which recognizes that the export diversification is a guarantee of stability in foreign exchange earnings, continues to make efforts to this end. One of the major objectives of the Five-Year Plan for the 2010-2014 period, funded with an amount of US$286 billion, is precisely the diversification of the national economy.

The improvement of the business climate in Algeria resulted, in 2013, by a substantial increase of the national investments and in partnership with foreigners, reaching a total of over US$11 billion.

Boosting bilateral energy cooperation

Algeria and Vietnam constantly work to strengthen the bilateral cooperation relations for mutual benefit of our two peoples and in order to heighten them to the level of the political ties. A rich and varied legal framework was put in place since the establishment of our diplomatic relations. Eleven bilateral agreements were recently signed: eight during the visit to Algiers of former Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, two on the occasion of the last Joint Commission meeting, held in Algiers in February 2011, and another one, at the end of the visit to Hanoi of the Algerian Minister of Post and Information and Communication Technologies in September 2011.

According to Mr. Chikhi, the cooperation between Algeria and Vietnam in the framework of investment covers the hydrocarbon sector.

In 2003, the Petroleum Development Company (renamed as Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation - PVEP) under the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and Algeria’s Petroleum Company (Sonatrach) signed a contract on petroleum investigation and exploitation in Algeria. That is the biggest project among those invested by Vietnam in Africa and considered as a breakthrough in Vietnam’s investment in the region.

In August 2011, PVEP in coordination with two other Asian partners including Thai Petroleum Corporation (PTTEP) and Japan Petroleum Consortium (JGC) signed with Algerian Petroleum Company (Sonatrach) a construction and erection contract worth over US$451 million in the Bir Seba oil-rig, the South of Algeria. Expectedly, by 2014 the project will come into operation with a capacity of 20,000 barrels/day.

Mr. Chikhi noted that the Algerian company - Sonatrach, which is one of the largest in the world in the energy sector and which operates in different parts of the globe, discovered several new oil and gas deposits. It is also the 4th world LNG exporter, the 3rd world LPG exporter and the 5th world natural gas exporter. It has operations in several parts of the world.

He also recommended two sides to include petroleum into the priority economic cooperation program between the two governments, stressing the role of PetroVietnam and Sonatrach in boosting bilateral economic cooperation./.

Source: Vietnam economic news