Algeria’s National Agency for Hydrocarbon Resources Valorization (Alnaft) has announced the signing of two study agreements, with the US independent Occidental Petroleum, on the oil and gas potential of El Ouabed and Dahar exploration permits, located in the south of the country.
The studies will assess hydrocarbon potential before any direct exploitation.
The agreements aim to analyze the resources of these regions and prepare for possible future developments.
This cooperation is coming several weeks after a hugely successful bid round which featured Algeria awarding five out of the six onshore blocks offered in the bid round to TOTALEnergies/ QatarEnergy partnership for the Ahara permit;. Sinopec for the Guern El Guessa permit. ENI/ PTTEP partnership for the Reggan permit. Zangas/ Suiss Filada partnership for Toual 2 zone and the Chinese company ZPEC, in league with ENI and Equinor, for Zerafa 2 permit.
Algeria wants to maintain its role as a reliable hydrocarbon supplier but the North African country’s production of oil and gas have been declining in the last several years. Algeria’s July 2025 crude oil output was 937,000Barrels of Oil Per Day, which is lower than the country’s overall 2023 average of 973,000BOPD. And while natural gas output increased robustly from 2020 to 2023, the volumes have not reached the height seen in 2010 to 2020.
The signed agreements with Occidental cover a preliminary stage of technical and geological studies to determine available resources and the conditions for developing them before any heavy capital commitments.
The next steps will depend on the study results. If significant potential is confirmed, the projects could pave the way for foreign direct investment, greater support for Algeria’s oil services industry, and stronger budget revenues.
