BP returns to Algeria with new exploration licence

Oil company BP is returning to Algeria with a new hydrocarbon exploration licence four years after it decided to end its presence in the North African Opec member state.

The company said in a statement to AGBI that it had secured a prospecting licence to evaluate early-stage opportunities.

“BP continuously assesses opportunities to grow and strengthen its global upstream portfolio… this prospecting licence in Algeria allows BP to assess exploration opportunities in that country,” the statement said.

In 2022, BP announced its intention to pull out of gas-rich Algeria by selling its business there to Italy’s Eni.

The move marked the end of roughly three decades of BP operations in Algeria, where it had significant stakes in the In Amenas and In Salah gas projects. 

The new licence granted to BP by the National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources (Alnfat), a subsidiary of the energy and mineral resources ministry, covers areas in Algeria’s eastern basin in the eastern Sahara desert near the borders with Libya and Tunisia.

The return of BP to Algeria “sends a strong signal of renewed confidence from international investors in the country’s mining domain”, an Alnaft statement said.

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Algeria plans to launch a bidding round for foreign oil companies on April 19 for the development of seven new blocks, Alnaft said earlier this month.

Algeria awarded contracts to five groups from Qatar and other countries in June last year as part of a bid round launched in late 2024 under its plan to reverse a decline in its oil reserves and production.

Algeria controls nearly 13 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, which could run out within 30 years at current production levels in the absence of new major discoveries, according to the Kuwaiti-based Arab Energy Organization.