Key oil and gas figures for 2017, released by Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, CEO of state firm Sonatrach on 2 May, indicate that the company, which dominates the country’s upstream slashed capex by 8.8% to $8.1bn last year.
Algeria faces mounting economic challenges: its foreign reserves halved between end-2013 ($195bn) and end-2017 ($97bn), whilst the country notched up an $11bn trade deficit for 2017 taking the total to a cumulative $45bn for the three years since oil prices tanked in late 2014 (MEES, 26 January). (CONTINUED - 363 WORDS)
