Algeria imported 254,741 Tons of Petroleum Products in 2021, compared with 858,939 Tons in 2020, a significant drop of 70%.
“This decrease is explained by the improvement in the local production of gasoline and diesel”, according to Sonatrach, the state hydrocarbon company. This improvement “led to a total stoppage of land fuel imports”, Sonatrach adds, in its latest report.
“The completion of the refinery rehabilitation programme and the improvement in production optimization, made it possible in 2021 to meet all of the demand for gasoline and diesel and stop importing them”, Sonatrach enthuses in its upbeat report.
Sonatrach says it completed the upgrade of its key refineries: Skikda, Arzew and Algiers; the revamp has taken the course of the last 10 years. But the major investment in refinery capacity increase in 2021 was completion work on the new Hassi Messaoud refinery-collocated with the old Hassi Messaoud refinery.
There was also a 7% drop in overall export of refined products, from 14.6Million Tonnes to 13.6Million Tonnes, an indication that Algerians consumed more petroleum products in country than they exported.
