ALGIERS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The CEO of the Algerian energy giant Sonatrach, Abdelmoumen Ould Kedour, said Thursday the company is set to invest 50 billion dollars in five years.
"We are currently in the process of elaborating a five years development plan, and we expect to invest about 50 billion dollars during this period," Ould Kedour told the local radio channel.
He further specified that this development plan will take account of all sectors of activity, including exploration, drilling, exploitation, management methods and personnel training.
The Sonatrach CEO said the company expects 31 billion dollars of hydrocarbon revenues by the end of 2017.
Earlier on Thursday, Energy Minister Mustapha Guitouni said Sonatrach has discovered 26 new hydrocarbons fields between January and September 2017, compared with 28 discoveries a year earlier.
In a meeting with the Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee, Guitouni noted that these discoveries were conducted without any foreign partnership.
He assumed that the North African nation's oil and gas assets will be consolidated thanks to these new discoveries, specifying that his country's hydrocarbons exports increased by 1.8 percent in the first seven months of 2017 to 122 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) compared with last year.
He noted that such a hike was achieved thanks to the increase in natural gas production in a step aimed to cover the decline in oil output, under OPEC's agreement to reduce global production.
In this regard, the Sonatrach CEO indicated that the company has the capacity to pump 93 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 53 billion cubic meters of which are set for export.
Algeria is aiming at augmenting its hydrocarbons investments in a bid to curb the financial crisis hitting the oil rich nation, due to the decline of crude prices in world markets.
The erosion of exchange reserves, which fell from about 200 billion dollars in 2014 to 97 billion dollars currently. This situation prompted the government to accelerate the process of reviewing the hydrocarbons law in force since 2006.
Two weeks ago, the energy minister announced that the hydrocarbons law is due to be amended in order to attract more foreign investors and companies to explore new fields.
The Algerian economy relies heavily on oil and gas exports, which account for about 30 percent of the country's GDP, and about 95 percent of the country's total exports. Oil and gas exports also account for 40 percent of the country's revenues.
