Algeria recently challenged the reform of the hydrocarbons sector that took place in 2005 when Minister of Energy Chakib Khelil brought in laws withdrawing the monopoly held by the state-owned company Sonatrach under the Hydrocarbons Law 1986.
Indeed, Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika passed an order on 29 July of this year that reversed the withdrawal of that monopoly. The 2006 Hydrocarbons Order leaves the institutional framework and the contractual regime set up by the 2005 Hydrocarbons Law unchanged, but the market liberalisation that the 2005 law aimed to achieve is almost entirely given up. In addition, the latest order creates a new windfall profit tax for all contracts entered into under the 1986 law.
