Hommam Al Nassim 
Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Mohamed Arkab said Thursday that his country has allocated $ 3.5 billion between 2024 and 2028 to expand the country’s hydrocarbon reserves base and increase primary production.
The minister added during a hearing in the National Assembly that this amount will also be allocated to improve the performance of exploration and improve the exploitation of hydrocarbon reservoirs using modern techniques such as recovery methods in order to raise the rate of recovery.
Arkab explained that the development program of the Sonatrach complex allocated $ 416 million for projects related to the environment, including $ 67 million for solar energy projects and $ 68 million for hydrogen projects.
“Algeria, like other exporting countries, seeks to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 22 percent by 2030, and reduce the total volume of flared gas to less than 1 percent,” the minister said.
This will be done through “the measures and procedures that Algeria is working to implement to monitor and control emissions, in cooperation with our national and international partners”, the minister noted.
The minister confirmed that Sonatrach plans to implement an ambitious program for natural carbon capture, with the support of the Directorate General of Forestry, with the aim of planting 420 million trees on an area of 520,000 hectares in the south of the country.
In the same endeavor, the minister pointed to the formation of a specialized committee that includes all stakeholders in the issue of reducing methane emissions, to develop a roadmap aimed at “establishing a national tool for detecting, estimating and reducing methane emissions, and there are several projects under implementation by Sonatrach.”
An agreement between Algeria and Slovenia to increase the quantities of gas exported