According to a report from the Algerian Press Agency, North-African oil producer, Algeria, has returned to being a net explorer of the most in-demand product of the distillation of crude oil, gasoline.

The report states that Algeria began exporting gasoline and diesel in 2020, for the first time in the last decade.

Up until 2009, Algeria used to be self-sufficient in petroleum products. It used to be the only country among the top three African hydrocarbon producers (Nigeria and Angola are the other two) that had enough products to spare for the export market.

Several years of under-investment in ageing fields and exploration of new fields made Algeria to join the petroleum products importers, like Nigeria and Angola.

Refining activities in 2020 increased by 7.4% in the volumes of oil condensate processed compared to 2019, from 27.2 Million tonnes to 29.1 Million tonnes. The country ended its imports of diesel in March 2020, and ended its import of gasoline in August 2020.