Biography: Youcef Yousefi was appointed energy & mining minister for a second term in 2010 having spent a decade as a diplomat and 14 years in government. His first diplomatic assignment came in 2001, when he was appointed as Algeria’s ambassador to Canada, which he remained until 2005. He then moved to New York to be Algeria’s permanent representative to the UN, where he remained until 2008. His final post was as ambassador to Tunisia. Yousefi was first appointed energy & mining minister in 1997, just before Algeria took over the Opec presidency. He was Opec president for a year and became foreign minister in 1999. Yousefi began his career as a lecturer at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers. He then moved to state-owned energy firm Sonatrach, where he was promoted to vice-president and later director-general. Yousefi has a doctorate from the University of Nancy in France.

Contact Tel: (+213) 2 148 8526

Biography: Abdelhamid Zerguine was appointed as CEO of Sonatrach in December 2011, replacing Nordine Cherouati, who had been in the position for only 18 months. Zerguine is the company’s fourth head in two years. He has served as a senior executive at Sonatrach since 1990 and was previously responsible for strategy development. He joined Sonatrach in 1976 as an adviser to a previous chief executive. Zerguine was formerly head of Transmed, a Switzerland-based joint venture formed in 2005 between Sonatrach and Italian oil firm Eni. As CEO, Zerguine’s key challenge will be to speed up exploration as Algeria seeks to replace the mature fields that account for most of its current oil and gas production. Attempts to attract foreign oil companies to invest in Algeria have floundered over the past three years due to unattractive financial terms.

Contact Tel: (+213) 2 160 1814

Biography: Sid Ali Betata was appointed president of Alnaft in November 2005. Previously, he was a director of mineral exploitation and conservation at the Energy Ministry. Alnaft’s was set up to take over Sonatrach’s responsibilities for managing the tendering of upstream oil and gas concessions, and the payment of taxes and royalties. Betata’s most difficult task has been finding employees with sufficient expertise to staff the organisation without stripping Sonatrach of its key personnel. Under Betata, the agency invited international companies to bid for 10 oil licences in 2011. However, only two were awarded leading to concerns over Algeria’s ability to maintain oil output. Betata blamed the lack of interest on the economic crisis and lack of financing, but investors say the terms on offer were unattractive.

Contact Tel: (+213) 2 166 5292

Biography: Donald MacLiver is the vice-president of operations at the largest international oil firm operating in Algeria, the US-headquartered Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. MacLiver joined Anadarko in 1996 as a production manager of Anadarko Algeria Company and has since held positions of increasing responsibility in Algeria and elsewhere. He currently oversees the company’s international operations. Before joining Anadarko, MacLiver spent 14 years with US oil firm Amoco in the UK and the US. He graduated from Leeds University in the UK with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1982. Anadarko is the largest foreign producer of oil Algeria. It has a total production capacity of more than 500,000 barrels a day from its operations at the combined Hassi Berkine South and Ourhoud fields.

Contact Tel: (+44) 189 520 9400

Biography: Victor Sneberg has been director-general and country manager of Statoil Algeria since October 2010. The company is the local subsidiary of Norway’s Statoil, which holds the Hassi Mouina licence with Sonatrach to explore a giant potential field in central Algeria. Statoil also operates the Salah dry gas and In Amenas gas and condensate fields. Before moving to Algeria, Sneberg worked in Norway, mainly at Statoil. He joined in 1985 as a reservoir engineer after graduating with a master’s degree in physics in 1982. Sneberg worked as a senior engineer for core flood simulation until 1991 and manager of core analysis until 1993. By 1997, he was head of reservoir engineering and in 2000 was promoted to subsurface manager. Sneberg was made vice-president of human resources for exploration and production in Norway in July 2004. He was vice-president of Statoil’s Heidrun operations in Norway from October 2007.

Contact Tel: (+213) 2 198 1200

Biography: Nicolas Foucart is the director of Spanish oil producer Repsol’s productive assets and development projects in Algeria. He is also the firm’s representative to Sonatrach and the Algerian oil ministry. Foucart was appointed to the post in 2006 and has since moved Repsol’s Algeria business unit from Madrid to Algiers and executed four exploration campaigns in the country, worth $500m. This included the Reggane scheme, which will produce 2.8 billion cubic metres a year of gas over 12 years. Foucart has spent his entire career at Repsol after joining as a project engineer in 1997. He was promoted to production engineer in 2001 and worked as project and engineering manager in Bolivia from 2003 to 2006. Foucart graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1993 from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He also has a master’s degree in offshore engineering from the University of Newcastle in the UK.

Contact Tel: (+213) 2 160 1298