IOCs debate Algeria bid round

The data rooms for Algeria’s 2014 licensing round closed on 22 May, leaving participants just over two months to decide whether and how to bid, and to secure board-level approval for any decision. It is still impossible to assess how successful this round is likely to be. Most executives canvassed by African Energy said they had not yet decided whether to bid. Some companies with existing interests in the country confessed that they had been asked by Sonatrach to take part and felt that they could not refuse.