Minister of Energy and Mines, Yousif Yousify Algiers - Hocine Bousalah A leading Algerian official has today praised the country’s developments in the fuel sector, revealing that 31 vital new discoveries of oil were made last year alone. Minister of Energy and Mines, Yousif Yousify, commended oil company Sonatrach for its collaboration with the foreign partners, which helped to find new reserves of oil inside the country. He also pointed out that increasing developments in the sector would improve the production of oil in coming years. In an interview with the People newspaper, the Algerian minister said: “Although I am proud of how far we have come in the oil industry, current innovation will not increase fuel production. We, as a nation, need more discoveries to increase oil production in coming years.” Yousify also revealed that since nationalising the oil sector in 1971, Algeria has discovered more than 300 areas containing oil, adding that the country’s fuel exportations have brought in more than $800m in to the economy in the past 40 years.