NAMIBIA

The Ministry of Mines and Energy, Namibia has announced that there will be no change in fuel prices in the country. The prices for petrol remain N$11.35 per litre and N$11.38 per litre of diesel.

The Ministry said it decided to retain the prices from December as the festive month recorded under-recoveries for diesel and petrol. Under-recoveries means that fuel was expensive to import in December.

The high costs of import were checked by the appreciation of the Namibian dollar against the US dollar. The currency averaged at N$14.92 per dollar in December from N$15.50 in November.

The spokesperson of the Minister, Andreas Simon said, “The ploughing season is upon us and diesel is one of the products largely used by the agricultural sector. Moreover, our economy is still limping in the Covid-19 climate, thus it is not the government’s intention to place an additional burden on consumers.”

ALGERIA

The state-owned oil and gas company, Sonatrach, plans to invest $40 billion over the next five (5) years to develop existing fields.

The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Toufik Hakkar, said that the Company expects higher output and sales in 2021, as it aims to start production from new fields.

The dinar spending includes projects that will be awarded to national companies “to allow the country to save considerable funds in hard currency.”

The Algerian government ordered Sonatrach to cut planned spending for this year by 50% to $7 billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused reduced demand and supply and caused a fall in global oil prices.