Algiers and Riyadh talk oil — and solar
S. Al-Harbi — Riyad, Arabie saoudite — 2026-10-15
On Monday 12 October, in Riyadh, two Algerian ministers sat down with a Saudi prince. The press release that came out of it fits on one page. It contains no amount, no volume, no timetable, no signed contract. It contains one word: “opportunities”.
And, alongside hydrocarbons, it contains three other words: solar, hydrogen, training.
That is why this meeting deserves better than a filler paragraph.
1. What was said, on Monday 12 October in Riyadh
The press release of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, taken up by the APS agency and published by Radio Algérienne on 13 October at 06:57, is precise about the people and the fields.
On the Algerian side: Mohamed Arkab, Minister of State, Minister of Hydrocarbons, and Mourad Adjal, Minister of Energy and Renewable Energies. On the Saudi side: Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources. The meeting was held on the sidelines of Energy Week in Riyadh, in the presence of Algeria's ambassador to the Kingdom and of executives of both parties.
The two parties examined, the text says, “the ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation and the investment opportunities in the fields of hydrocarbons, energy and renewable energies”. Then comes the list — and it is in the list that the real intention of the document can be read:
- hydrocarbons: exploration and development, development of fields, strengthening of the oil and gas industry in Algeria;
- petrochemical industry; reduction of the carbon footprint and limitation of methane emissions;
- “promising projects associating the Sonatrach group with leading Saudi companies”;
- local content, exchange of expertise and transfer of technology, training and upskilling programmes, research and innovation;
- seawater desalination and related industrial equipment and services;
- on the energy side: electricity, manufacturing of electrical equipment, clean hydrogen, solar photovoltaic;
- the framework: the Algeria–Saudi Arabia High Cooperation Council and the Council of Arab Ministers of Electricity — where Algeria holds the vice-presidency of the executive bureau, confirmed the same day by a second press release;
- a market point, finally: the two parties declare themselves “satisfied with the positive developments of the world market” and reaffirm their “total commitment” to the OPEC+ agreements.
2. What this press release does not say
Since the SoutH2 dossier, our rule has been constant: an “examination of opportunities” is not a signed contract. Here, the text gives:
- no amount — not a dinar, not a dollar, not a riyal;
- no volume, no timetable, no deadline;
- no name of a Saudi company: it says “leading Saudi companies”, it does not name them;
- no contract, no memorandum, no letter of intent cited;
- no Saudi statement: at this hour, the only text we have is Algerian; we have found no word from the Saudi side on this meeting.
And the press release says nothing about Riyadh's intentions. Neither do we. A ministerial meeting says what was put on the table; it does not say what will come out of it.
3. What Algeria brings to that table — and since when
This is where the word “training” stops being a press-release word.
29 November 1965. The Algerian Petroleum Institute (IAP), a subsidiary of the Sonatrach group, is created. Four sites: Boumerdès, Arzew, Skikda, Hassi Messaoud. Its original mission: to train the technical executives of the national oil industry, in “the phase of recovering the national wealth”. Its graduating classes went from 4 to 122 students between 1965 and 1976.
1 July 1971. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan promulgates law No. 2 of the year 1971, which creates the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — ADNOC — and entrusts it with “all branches of the oil industry”. The date and the mission are established by an Emirati document reproduced on a State domain and by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. What the Algerian sources add — and what no Emirati source confirms — is the name of the man who left Sonatrach to set it up: Mahmoud Hamra-Krouha, who ran it until 1987. The British archives keep on this point a referenced file — FCO 8/5059, “Algerians in Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)”. We published this story, with its three reservations, in our article of 11 October.
10 July 2025, Vienna. The IAP receives the OPEC award for the best research institute in the energy field for 2025, on the occasion of the 9th OPEC Forum, after a competition that the press release calls “tough” between institutions from several continents. The Secretary General of OPEC, presenting the award, declares that the Institute is a “prestigious establishment that has trained students who have reached high positions in their countries, some of them having even held ministerial portfolios”.
And it is not a memory. Algerian know-how in oil training is the subject of recently signed agreements: two agreements between Sonatrach and the Omani company Abraj Energy Services to strengthen cooperation in vocational training; and an academic cooperation agreement between the IAP and the Congolese company SNPC, coupled with a contract with the University of Boumerdès. A Gulf State, a Central African State: two continents, two agreements, one same stakeholder — the Algerian institute.
4. The most important line of the press release
Selling gas is selling a resource. Training the executives who know how to extract it, refine it and sell it is selling something else: what remains when the resource is gone.
The press release of 12 October places, alongside “Sonatrach”, the transfer of technology and training programmes. In other words: at Riyadh's table, Algeria does not bring only fields. It brings what it has been doing since 29 November 1965 — a school, a method, and men who have learned them.
What remains to be established is simple, and we write it rather than let it be believed: nothing was signed on 12 October. The “opportunities” are on the table. The rest belongs to companies and calendars — not to the press release.
5. Conclusion
A contract can be repudiated; a competence cannot be taken back. The Riyadh press release signs nothing — and it does not need to sign: what is on the table, OPEC already said in 2025, in Vienna, before institutions from several continents. Oil is sold by the barrel. Know-how, for its part, is transmitted — and it is the only resource of Algeria that does not run out.
S. Al-Harbi — Riyad, Arabie saoudite
📚 COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY (rule no. 19)
1. Radio Algérienne (fr), « Algérie-Arabie saoudite : examen des opportunités d'investissement dans les hydrocarbures et les énergies renouvelables », 13 October 2026, 06:57, source APS — press release of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons: Arkab and Adjal in Riyadh on Monday 12 October, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, list of the fields examined (exploration, field development, petrochemicals, methane, Sonatrach, local content, exchange of expertise, transfer of technology, training and upskilling, desalination, electricity, clean hydrogen, solar photovoltaic), Algeria–Saudi Arabia High Cooperation Council, Council of Arab Ministers of Electricity, OPEC+ commitment — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/96335
2. Radio Algérienne (fr), « OPEP+ : Arkab prend part à une réunion consultative consacrée à la stabilité du marché pétrolier et à la sécurité des approvisionnements », 13 October 2026, 06:59, source APS — meeting of Monday 12 October in Riyadh on the sidelines of Energy Week (IEF17, 25th World Petroleum Congress, 11-15 October); rise in freight and insurance costs “exceeding one third of the value of the goods transported”; security of navigation routes — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/96336
3. Radio Algérienne (en), English version of entry 2 — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/en/node/96361
4. Radio Algérienne (en), « Conseil ministériel arabe de l'électricité : l'Algérie élue à la vice-présidence du Bureau exécutif » — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/en/node/96343
5. AL24 News (fr), « Conseil ministériel arabe de l'électricité : l'Algérie élue à la vice-présidence du Bureau exécutif » — https://al24news.dz/fr/conseil-ministeriel-arabe-de-lelectricite-lalgerie-elue-a-la-vice-presidence-du-bureau-executif/
6. AL24 News (fr), « Arkab et Adjal s'entretiennent à Riadh avec le ministre saoudien de l'Énergie, de l'Industrie et des Ressources minérales » — second take-up of the meeting — https://al24news.dz/fr/arkab-et-adjal-sentretiennent-a-riadh-avec-le-ministre-saoudien-de-lenergie-de-lindustrie-et-des-ressources-minerales/
7. Radio Algérienne (fr), « L'IAP reçoit le prix de l'OPEP du meilleur institut de recherche », 10 July 2025, 09:34, source APS — award presented at the 9th OPEC Forum in Vienna; director of the institute: Abdelkader Guenoune; Secretary General of OPEC: Haïthem Al Gheith; creation of the IAP on 29 November 1965; quotation of the Secretary General on the students “who have reached high positions in their countries, some of them having even held ministerial portfolios” — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/67604
8. Wikipédia (fr), « Institut algérien du pétrole » — founded 1965; headquarters at Boumerdès; 4 sites (Boumerdès, Arzew, Skikda, Hassi Messaoud); initial function: to train national technical executives for the oil industry between 1965 and 1976; class sizes rising from 4 to 122; institute linked to Sonatrach — https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_algérien_du_pétrole
9. Wikipédia (en), « Algerian Petroleum Institute » — establishment created in 1965 in collaboration with the French Petroleum Institute (IFP), with the mission of providing graduate engineers and highly qualified technicians to Sonatrach — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Petroleum_Institute
10. Azzedine Ali Benali, « Les ingénieurs de l'Institut algérien du pétrole : formation et parcours professionnels », in Les ingénieurs maghrébins dans les systèmes de formation, Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (IRMC), 2014 — academic source cited for the history of the institute — http://books.openedition.org/irmc/139
11. Al Masar (magazine reproduced on the domain of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, rta.ae) — reproduction of law No. 2 of 1971 promulgated on 1 July 1971 by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, creating ADNOC — https://www.rta.ae/links/magazine/masar/Al_Masar_118_Arb.pdf
12. OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries — official document) — “Abu Dhabi created in 1971 a national company, called Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to which all branches of the oil industry were entrusted” — https://www.oapecorg.org/media/6b62b15a-314d-4934-ac8d-bace85fe73d3/
13. Our article AV-R-20261011-036-DZ-ADNOC-HAMRA-KROUHA, « L'homme qui a bâti le pétrole des Émirats — et que les Émirats ne citent plus », 11 October 2026 — the role of Mahmoud Hamra-Krouha, sent by Sonatrach to Abu Dhabi, and his running of ADNOC until 1987; no Emirati source names him; archive reference FCO 8/5059, “Algerians in Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)” — DOCUMENTATION/BOÎTE DE VALIDATION/01 - VALIDÉS & PUBLIÉS/AV-R-20261011-036-DZ-ADNOC-HAMRA-KROUHA--l-homme-qui-a-bati-le-petrole-des-emirats.md
14. The National Archives (United Kingdom) / Arabian Gulf Digital Archives — reference FCO 8/5059 — https://www.agda.ac.uk/
15. Le Chiffre d'Affaires (fr), « Sonatrach et Abraj Energy Services signent deux accords pour renforcer la coopération dans la formation professionnelle » — title and URL — https://lechiffredaffaires.dz/sonatrach-et-abraj-oman-signent-deux-accords-pour-renforcer-la-cooperation-dans-la-formation-professionnelle/
16. Radio Algérienne (fr), « Sonatrach : signature de deux accords avec la société omanaise Abraj pour renforcer la coopération en matière de formation » — title and URL — https://news.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/59110
17. Sonatrach (official site), « Signing of an agreement between the Algerian Petroleum Institute and the Congolese company SNPC, as well as a contract between the IAP and the University of Boumerdes » — title and URL — https://sonatrach.com/en/signing-of-an-agreement-between-the-algerian-petroleum-institute-and-the-congolese-company-snpc-as-well-as-a-contract-between-the-iap-and-the-university-of-boumerdes/
18. Radio Algérienne (fr), « Signature d'un accord de coopération académique entre l'Institut Algérien du Pétrole (IAP) relevant de Sonatrach et une entreprise congolaise » — title and URL — https://my.radioalgerie.dz/fr/node/40168
⚠️ Published reservations.
(1) An “examination of opportunities” is not a contract. The press release mentions no amount, no volume, no timetable, no signed contract, no memorandum. The article says so in its text, in § 2 — and not in a note.
(2) Only one party has spoken. The press release we quote is Algerian (Ministry of Hydrocarbons, via APS). We have found no Saudi statement on this meeting as of 13 October 2026. We therefore do not present this text as a joint account.
(3) No company name. The press release writes “leading Saudi companies” without naming them; the article therefore lends them no identity.
(4) Intentions are not guessed. The article does not say what Riyadh “comes to seek”: it says what the press release puts on the table, and it recalls the Algerian foundation. Any reading of Saudi intentions would be a hypothesis, and it is excluded.
(5) Four references are cited by their titles — entries 15 to 18 (Abraj/Oman, IAP/SNPC, IAP/University of Boumerdès). Their titles are explicit and consistent with one another; they ground no assertion of the article beyond the existence of training agreements with an Omani partner and a Congolese partner. To be opened before republication.
(6) The creation date of the IAP: 29 November 1965. That is the date of the OPEC press release taken up by Radio Algérienne (entry 7). It is not 1964: 1964 is the year of the first liquefied natural gas cargo at Arzew, recalled in our article 036 and which we have not re-verified at an external source for this dossier. The two dates must not be confused.
(7) The word “training” is in the press release — not in our reading. The list (“exchange of expertise and transfer of technology”, “training and upskilling programmes”) is quoted from the official text, not inferred.
(8) No judgment on a people, a nation or a religion. The article speaks only of States, institutions, companies, dates and texts. The vocabulary proscribed by the editorial team does not appear in it. No insult, no qualifier aimed at a people.
(9) The archive references are not presented as opened by us in this article. The reference FCO 8/5059 is taken from our article 036; it was not reopened for this dossier, and it is cited as a series reference, with its portal URL.
(10) Classification: no SCOOP badge. The dossier reveals no document; it puts into perspective a public press release and a documented foundation.
(11) This article is the first of the series “The Algerians of the Gulf”. It does not conclude the series: it opens it. The rule of the dossier remains that of the editor-in-chief — “one article per country, and per named person, with its archive reference, or nothing”.