Algeria's domestic energy consumption rises by 7.5 pct

Algeria's domestic energy consumption from January to September 2015 maintained its ascendant trend, rising by 7.5 percent to 43 million tons of oil equivalent (TOE) compared to 40 million TOE a year earlier.

Driven by household consumption and gas processing industries, including Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and petrochemicals industries, this growth has affected virtually all energy products, including gasoline and diesel, as well as low voltage electricity customers, according to figures issued by the Energy Ministry on Sunday.

The report noted that the growth in domestic demand for electricity has been broadly maintained under control, especially in the summer period, despite "very strong" increase in demand between January and September 2015, up 13.6 percent compared to a year earlier.

Domestic demand for natural gas has also experienced "significant" increase in the first nine months of 2015, the report said, adding that the increase has been driven mainly by the consumption hike of power plants by 13 percent to 30 billion cubic meters.

As for petroleum products, the domestic market consumed more than 13 million tons over the same period with an increase of 5.7 percent due to increased demand on gasoline (+7.5 percent) and gas oil (+5.6 percent).

The government has decided to maintain oil investment despite drop in the country's revenues, by earmarking 90 billion U.S. dollars for the period 2015-2019. Some 22 billion dollars will be invested for developing natural gas fields.

Oil and gas reserves in Algeria increased by five percent from 4.2 billion tons in 2010 to 4.4 billion tons in 2014, according to official figures.

A recent report of the World Bank ranked Algeria at the ninth place globally in the field of natural gas production in 2014 with 83 billion cubic meters annually.

As for crude oil, the report ranked Algeria the 18th worldwide in 2014 with 1.52 million barrels per day, compared to 1.48 million barrels per day in 2013. Endit