Africa’s largest oil and gas producer - Algeria’s Sonatrach has announced the discovery of four new oil and a gas wells on April 12, taking its total of discoveries this year to five. The first and second discoveries were made in partnership with Medex while the third and fourth discoveries were made by Sonatrach alone1.

The United States Geological survey meanwhile, in an assessment released on April 17 revealed that an area in North Dakota and Montana called the Bakken formation was estimated to hold 3-4.3 billion barrels of oil and that it could be extracted using current technology. Geologist and industry officials however have cautioned that the discovery would be economically feasible only if the current prices of oil prevailed.

• 1. ‘’Algeria’s Sonatrach announces four oil-gas finds,” Reuters, April 12, 2008, at www.africa.reuters.com/nbc/DZ