(Ecofin Agency) - In Algeria, the Minister of Energy has said that the country’s oil production is expected to increase to 45 million tpy by 2024 with the commissioning of refineries at Hassi Messaoud, Tiaret and Biskra.

According to Salah Khebri, the country’s per year production of oil products such as petrol, diesel oil and other fuels reached 30 million tonnes per year after the refineries at Skikda, Algiers and Arzew were renovated, thereby making Algeria reduced the importation of oil products.

The Minister further explained that the country’s output capacity will rise by 15 million tonnes to 45 million tonnes, when the refineries of Hassi Messaoud and Tiaret are commissioned in 2020 while that of Biskra will be commissioned in 2024.

This increase in output capacity will assist in meeting domestic need and still remain for exports.

National fuel consumption had increased by 6.6% between 2010 and 2015, due to the increase in the number of vehicles, which had made the government start importing to feed the rising demand.

In order to ease the situation, the government had decided to reduce consumption by increasing the price of petrol and diesel, and encouraged the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the country, Bernama news reports.

Anita Fatunji