The Minister of State, Minister of Hydrocarbons and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, emphasized that the hydrocarbons sector has achieved significant results in recent years, stressing the need to rely on new technologies and strengthen effective partnerships with national and foreign companies.
In his address during a meeting this Saturday with officials from the energy and renewable energy sectors, held under the slogan “For a Public Service of Excellence,” Arkab specified that “the hydrocarbons sector has recorded significant results in exploration, production, and processing over recent years.” This was made possible, he said, thanks to the visionary policy of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who has made energy security and sovereignty over national resources one of his strategic priorities.
In this context, he highlighted the need to encourage investment, localize technologies, and develop the national industry of petroleum equipment and materials by reinforcing effective partnerships with national and foreign companies, insisting on the central role that digitization plays in modernizing the sector and improving governance, as an essential tool for transparency, accuracy, and speed in handling operations.
Regarding the restructuring of the Energy and Mines sector following the latest government reshuffle, Arkab reported the completion of drafting new regulatory texts relating to the two ministries (Hydrocarbons and Mines on one hand, Energy and Renewable Energies on the other), which “will be published soon to ensure clarity of missions and precision of complementarity between central and local bodies and public enterprises under supervision.”
The new organization of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Mines is based on the principle of specialization and competence, he said, noting that managing the hydrocarbons sector, with its technical, financial, commercial, and geopolitical complexities, requires great expertise and the ability to adapt to global transformations in oil and gas markets, as well as adding value to resources locally through refining, petrochemicals, mining processing, and logistics services.
Addressing the mining sector, he specified that the new vision rests on rational and sustainable exploitation of resources through extensive geological prospecting, broadening the investment base, and developing national value chains, recalling that the new law governing mining activities enshrines the principles of transparency, efficiency, and simplification of procedures, and opens the way for balanced partnerships ensuring technology transfer, training, and resource valorization. The mining sector is undergoing a period of “qualitative revival,” involving specialized governance capable of restructuring activities, attracting investments, supervising sustainable resource exploitation, and strengthening Algeria’s integration into global value chains of strategic raw materials, he affirmed.
The issue of seawater desalination, which has become a priority dossier in the missions of his ministerial department due to its strategic role in achieving water security and supporting industrial and agricultural development, was also raised by Arkab, who affirmed the intention to ensure local manufacturing of desalination equipment and develop national capacities in this field through partnerships with specialized national and international companies.