Algerias energy and mines minister, Youcef Yusfi, has said that he expects the countrys gas production to double in the next seven to 10 years following several recent significant oil and gas discoveries
Yusfi said new discoveries and improved efficiencies in maturing and new fields meant Algeria was pumping crude oil at a rate of 1.2mn barrels a day and expected to increase its gas production.
"For the medium term, I think, our production will more than double from the existing one," Yusfi was quoted as saying by Reuters.
He went on to say that Algeria had found an estimated one billion barrels of oil under the major Hassi R'mel field as well as making oil and gas finds under the maturing Berkine and Illiza basins.
The country is currently evaluating the same technologies that have led to a shale boom in the US.
Studies have found 300-500 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of tight oil and more than 700 tcf of shale gas in Algeria, according to Yusfi.
"Concerning the new regions in the south west, for the first time, this is a region that is not explored at all, two weeks ago we made a discovery of gas and oil and we are in the process of evaluation," Yusfi was quoted as saying.
