Algeria's expansion strategy

The country's energy sector has big ideas for the future—if the creaking political establishment will approve them

Algeria's ambitious oil and gas expansion plan faces its moment of truth in June when the government unveils a long-awaited hydrocarbons law designed to lure sceptical international oil companies. The plan, Project 2030, calls for $56bn of investment over the next four years. But it won't work without foreign investors, and to date they've been scared off by corruption, political turmoil, low returns and onerous contract conditions. Project 2030 aims to change all that. It's the brainchild of Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, appointed in March last year as chief executive of Sonatrach, the state-owned firm that has a monopoly on Algeria's oil and gas industry. Kaddour's plan calls for a thorough re