Algeria’s natural gas industry is growing strongly, and is on target to meet ambitious plans. Part of this growth can be attributed to the cultivation of the energy-hungry US as a market — it will play an increasingly important role as a purchaser of Algeria’s resources. In recent years, Algeria has been increasingly targeting the US as a major customer for natural gas, having exported more than 60 billion cubic meters last year. It has ambitious plans to become one of the US’s major suppliers in the coming years. In May, Mohamed Meziane, the president and chief executive officer of Sonatrach, Algeria’s state owned oil and gas company, announced the company was looking to triple gas exports to the US from 4 billion to 12 billion cubic meters by 2010. Meziane said he was confident that Algeria could carve out a larger slice of the expanding US market, despite competition
