Algeria gas export plan on track

Algiers/Istanbul: Algeria, Africa's largest natural gas exporter, is on schedule to export 85 billion cubic metres of the fuel by 2012, the chairman of the country's national oil company Sonatrach said.

Algeria is producing 1.2 million barrels a day of oil and has an output capacity of 1.45 million barrels a day, Mohammad Meziane said in an interview in Doha late on Sunday.

The Skikda liquefied natural gas plant will start in 2011, he said as he arrived for a meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

The world's biggest natural-gas exporters, including Russia, Iran and Qatar, are meeting to discuss funding a joint budget and select a secretary general for the gas producers' club.

Dogan

The energy unit of Turkish conglomerate Dogan Holding has become a partner in two oil exploration projects in northern Iraq, with a 50 per cent stake in both, Dogan said yesterday. The news catapulted Dogan shares up 18 per cent to 1.12 lira by 1222 GMT, when the main index was up 2.2 per cent.

The two exploration projects will entail $80 million (Dh293.68 million) in investments, $40 million of which will be made this year, the company said in a statement.

Turkish firms are keen to gain a foothold in the newly emerging northern Iraqi energy sector.