Algeria may look like a gas giant on Europe’s southern flank, but beneath the shine it’s scrambling to save the goose that lays its golden eggs. The script is familiar—Egypt played this role already: exporter turned importer. Algeria’s old fields are aging fast, their lifespans closing in, while a restless and youthful population stares into the void of unemployment and dead-end futures. Testosterone without outlets doesn’t create stability; it creates tinderboxes.
To stave off explosions, Algeria must lure energy-hungry industries for jobs and keep domestic gas cheap enough to prevent bread riots. That’s not stewardship of a scarce resource—it’s the blueprint for squandering it on a biblical scale. Add to this the simple fact that Algeria isn’t exactly drowning in water, and shale extraction starts looking like a costly fantasy. Not impossible, but every complication demands more cash.Yes, Exxon and Chevron can raise monuments of steel and pipe that scrape the heavens, but nimble they are not. And Sonatrach, Algeria’s own lumbering behemoth, is hardly more agile. The result? A slow-motion spectacle worth watching—especially for Europe, which may soon discover it has one fewer supplier to count on.