São Paulo – Algeria is considering expanding its oil production this year. According to information from the public news agency Algerie Presse Service (APS), the minister of Energy, Youcef Yousfi, said that the measure could be taken to lessen the impact on exports revenue. Oil sales correspond approximately to 95% of Algeria exports so the profit generated by the commodity is going down because of the drop of oil prices.
The Algerian public oil company Sonatrach produces 1.2 million barrels/day. According to APS, that is the quota established for Algeria by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
“Today, we are speeding up the development of dozens of [oil] fields. We will [study] the possibility of increasing our hydrocarbon production to recover our country’s revenues”, said Yousfi during a hearing at the Committee for Economic, Developing, Industry, Commerce and Planning Issues of the People’s National Assembly.
The minister stated that it’s not known yet how long “the crisis” will last and noted that the North of Africa country needs to fund its development without the need to search for funding in the international market.
Last year, Algeria’s exports dropped 3.1% over 2013. According to the Algerian Customs’ National Centre of Data Processing and Statistics (CNIS), the drop was caused by a 4.5% reduction with revenues from oil and its products. This Thursday (22th), the Brent crude was dealt at US$ 45.70. In June of last year, the price was over US$ 100 per barrel.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
