Algeria to maintain oil investments in Libya: report

Algeria has decided to maintain its oil investments in Libya despite the turmoil that have ravaged the country for several weeks.


"After recurrent meetings and after repatriating 80 of its workers in its subsidiary SIPEX in Libya, the state-owned oil company Sonatrach has decided to sustain the 50 million U.S. dollars investments per year in Libya," El Khabar newspaper quoted an official at the Ministry of Energy and Mines as saying on Friday.


The source specified that "Sonatrach will continue exploring its awarded oil blocks as soon as the situation calms down," adding that "working equipment and devices have been left in the sites where SIPEX works in, including in Ghadames region in the south east of Libya, near borders with Algeria."


Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Youcef Yousfi has already declared that Sonatrach achieved its first hydrocarbon discovery in Libya in 2005, while the second discovery was made in 2010 in Ghadames basin, near borders between the two countries.


However, Minister of Interior Dahou Ould Kablia mentioned that Sonatrach and its workers in Libya have been subject to stealing by mercenaries.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)