ALGIERS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Algeria has discovered new gas reserves in exploration programs recently, the country's Minister of Energy and Mines, Youcef Yousfi, said during a press conference on Monday.
"This year's intensified gas exploration program enabled Sonatrach (a state-run energy group) to make new discoveries, some of which are very important and extremely promising, as they contributed to increasing the country's gas reserves," official APS news agency quoted Yousfi as saying.
The minister added that "one of these important discoveries was made last week by Sonatrach in a poorly explored region, which provides promising prospects in this region."
Yousfi further reassured that Algeria will continue exporting natural gas despite increasing domestic demand.
Algeria stands as one of the world's largest producers of gas and its derivatives, with about 4,000 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves and 80 billion cubic meters output per year, of which 50 billion cubic meters are exported to Europe, official figures show.
Meanwhile, the minister revealed that Algeria's first nuclear power plant will be put into operation by 2025.
"Hopefully, Algeria's first nuclear plant will start operation by 2025," he said.
