Shale gas exploitation in Algeria, planned within some years, will use a new procedure based on less-polluting technologies, Minister of Town Planning and Environment, Dalila Boudjemaa said Sunday in Tizi-Ouzou.
Speaking to reporters at the household waste sorting center in the city, Boudjemaa recalled the position of her ministry for "an environment-friendly development."
Concerning the problem of contamination of the water injected into the soil to extract the gas, and which is mixed with sand and chemicals, she said that her ministry has "demanded and obtained from different stakeholders (guarantees), that the water which rises to the surface be treated and re-injected into the soil for new drilling works.”
As for the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing, the process which will be employed by Algeria in shale gas exploitation will allow to reduce their number to 13 or 14 chemical instead of 400 to 500, utilized in the former methods.
"The use of cemented steel tube through which the mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected into the gas pocket, will prevent the contamination of the site," Boudjemaa added, noting that "Algeria has the necessary resources to protect (itself) against all forms of pollution."