Algerian Energy Minister Abdelmadjid Attar expects that Algeria's revenues from crude oil and gas exports will drop to $23.5 billion this year, after it was $34 billion in the past 2019, due to falling global prices and growing domestic consumption.
"Algeria produced 90 billion cubic meters of gas in 2019, while consumption reached 43 billion cubic meters," Attar said in a press statement to Algerian state radio.
Attar added that Algeria, a member of OPEC, relies heavily on oil and gas exports to finance the state budget and pay for goods imports estimated at more than $40 billion annually.
The global Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated financial pressures on the Algerian economy, as the Algerian government forced the state-owned energy company, Sonatrach, to cut its planned investments for the current year by half to $7 billion. This coincided with an increase in domestic demand for gas and oil products, which reached seven percent annually, according to official figures.
Source (Algeria News Agency,Edited)
