Qatar Marks Algiers Agreement Anniversary

The State of Qatar participated in the celebration held on 24 September 2018 in Algiers on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Algiers Agreement, which paved the way for the historic Vienna Conventions at the end of 2016. The delegation of Qatar was headed by Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) held its extraordinary meeting No. 170 in September 2016 in Algiers, chaired by the State of Qatar, then President of the Opec Conference, aimed at restoring balance to the world oil market.

The meeting resulted two months after the agreement of the Organization’s member states with a number of non-Opec producing countries to reduce their oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day during the meeting of the Organisation No. 171 on 30 November 2016 and the declaration of cooperation, which was followed on 10 December of the same year.

Dr Al Sada participated in the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Control Committee which monitors the level of commitment to the historic agreement.

He also visited Algeria’s Algerian-Qatari steel company Bellara in Jijel state, about 375 km northeast of Algiers. The project, which covers an area of about 216 ha, is the first of the cooperation agreement signed between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Algeria in 2013.

It is a joint venture between Qatar International Steel Company (49 percent), Algeria’s Cedar and Algeria Investment Fund (51 percent). It is expected that the production capacity of the plant will gradually increase and reach in the coming year 2019 to about 2 million tons of steel.

H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Interior Minister, laid the foundation stone for the project in March 2015 with Abdelmalek Sallal, Prime Minister of Algeria.