Algeria to announce results of oil block bids next month

• Algeria seeks foreign interest
• Forty-one bids submitted
• New law encouraging entries

Algeria is due to announce the successful bidders for six oil blocks with a combined area of more than 150,000 square kilometres next month as part of a drive to reverse a decline in production.

Forty-one companies have already submitted offers, according to the National Agency for the Valorisation of Hydrocarbon Resources in Algeria, which is organising the round.

Last year bidding on the six blocks was extended to June 17 this year from November 2024.

The onshore blocks cover a combined area of around 152,000 square kilometres, nearly 7 percent of Algeria’s area, and are mostly offered on a production sharing basis.

Bids will be opened publicly in Algiers on June 17. Two independent observers will be selected from the audience, the agency said.

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Algeria is Africa’s number one gas producer and number three oil producer, extracting 1.4 million barrels a day in 2023, according to the Energy Institute.

In 2019 it adopted a new hydrocarbons law which offers markedly better terms to international oil companies.

The ratings agency BMI, formerly known as Fitch, said in April that it expects a “modest recovery” in Algerian oil and condensate production this year on the back of the new law and increased foreign interest.

This follows a significant 7 percent decline in production last year, according to the agency.