Open Democracy: Shale gas in Algeria: anger mounts as the government lies by omission

On 27 December 2014, with no prior public notice or national debate the Algerian authorities announced the drilling of the first shale gas well in Ain Salah in the south. Unprecedented huge protests broke out across Algeria, several of which took place in otherwise quieter areas of the country, from Ouargla, Ilizi, Ghardaia, Timimoun, Adrar, Bordj Badji Mokhtar, Oum El Bouaghi, Bejaia, Oran, Ain Beida, and Ain Salah, spreading all the way to the capital, Algiers, in a quick ripple effect of solidarity.

According the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Algeria has the third-largest estimated shale gas reserves in the world. With the country's rich oil and natural gas reserves declining in recent years, Algeria authorised the exploitation of shale gas in January 2013, following an amendment to the hydrocarbon law that enables the exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons. Read the full article Here