Higher world oil prices in recent years — which apexed in mid-2008 — as well as advances in technology and reforms easing foreign investment have renewed interest in hydrocarbon production in the North African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. For Morocco, an almost complete dependence on foreign sources of oil and gas, which account for 90 percent of the country’s energy needs, has become a source of growing discomfort. In resource-rich Algeria, skyrocketing prices generated a sizeable wealth in foreign exchange reserves. Tunisia moved ahead with exploration and production of its own modest upstream industry. The hydrocarbons sector is of varying significance to each country’s economy: Morocco and Tunisia are encouraging growth in the sector, while Algeria benefited immensely from the sector’s profitability, as global oil prices soared to $150 a barrel in mid-2008. But even as North African countries race to find and produce new sources of hydrocarbons,
