Algeria plans to boost oil and gas productions to feed both rising local and global demand.

According to Xinhua news, the country’s Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal (photo), had foretold an increasing global demand for clean energy in the future counting Algeria's natural gas.

Last year, Algeria succeeded in boosting natural gas output by 2.3% as a result of efforts made by Sonatrach. Sellal however, said that the country has to struggle for an even higher gas production in order to meet rising demand.

Algeria has been compelled to work on diversifying its economy in the midst of falling oil prices in the international markets and intense drop in revenues in recent months by creating an industrial plan for the coming years.

The government agreed to preserve oil investment in spite of the drop in the country's revenues, by reserving $90 billion for the period of 2015-2019. $22 billion is to be invested for the development of natural gas fields.

The government also plans to develop Sonatrach’s reserve base and increase its production capacity. Sonatrach anticipates to boost hydrocarbon production from the 2018 to reach 225 million ton of oil equivalent, from 195 million in 2013.

Anita Fatunji