TUNIS: Damage to Gulf energy infrastructure in the West Asia war has turned attention to Algeria and Libya as possible fallback oil and gas suppliers, but both have little room to ramp up output in the short term, experts say. The resulting concerns of a global energy supply shock have turned eyes towards Algeria, an oil producer and OPEC member that is also Africa's leading gas exporter. Unlike Qatar, which exports liquefied natural gas (LNG) by tanker, Algeria relies primarily on gas pipelines: the TransMed to Italy and the MedGaz to Spain. Gas pipelines are "excellent alternatives in terms of security and insurance premiums, but there are structural limitations", said Geoff Porter, an analyst with North Africa Risk Consulting. "There is some spare capacity in MedGaz (maybe 1 billion cubic metres per year), but there is no extra capacity in TransMed," he told AFP.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 21, 2026 15:19 UTC