MUST READ: ISLAMIST TERRORISM & ENERGY SECTOR SECURITY IN ALGERIA

Islamist Terrorism and Energy Sector Security in Algeria

Despite the fact that its oil production is leveling off and serious questions surround projected increases in gas production, exogenous developments and domestic efforts are serving to make Algeria an increasingly important oil and gas supplier to European and U.S. markets. Simultaneously, the risks posed by Islamist terrorism seem to be escalating and reversing the diminishing trend that characterized the last four years. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the resurgence in terrorist activity during the last six months and the growing significance of the Algerian energy sector, there have only been three attacks on the energy sector itself—two on employees of foreign firms and one on a domestic gas pipeline. Considering the thousands of kilometers of pipelines and more than a dozen foreign oil and gas firms operating in the country, it is surprising that Islamist terrorists have not targeted Algeria's energy sector more aggressively. For the past six years, it appeared that Algeria's security situation was improving and that the European Union's and the United States' growing reliance on Algerian oil and gas would not be jeopardized by the country's Islamist insurgency. Building on his passage of the popular Civil Concord general amnesty in 1999, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had seemingly gained the upper hand by 2002 against the Islamist insurgency that destabilized the country throughout the 1990s, and he had begun to push out of politics the members of the military who were suspected of manipulating Islamist violence. His re-election in 2004 was largely due to the perception that he was personally responsible for bringing an end to the Islamist threat in Algeria. In fact, a member of the Movement for a Peaceful Society, the government-sanctioned Islamist party, said in a private conversation with this author in November 2004, "Thank God, Bouteflika brought peace to Algeria."

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1) Islamist Terrorism and Energy Sector Security in Algeria