ALGERIA - Chakib Khelil.

The Minister of Energy and Mines since Dec. 24, 1999, Khelil is the man in charge of the petroleum and mining sectors. But the decisions for the petroleum sector are usually taken at the cabinet level. Virtually all the ministers and top bureaucrats with portfolios related to the economy, from the prime minister to the central bank governor, are involved in various aspects of the petroleum sector. Khelil took over the energy and mines ministry from Youcef Yousfi who then was made foreign minister.

Khelil, close to Bouteflika, was until mid-1999 a high-ranking economist at the World Bank in Washington. His friendship with Bouteflika goes back to the late 1960s, when Khelil was working for Sonatrach. In his early 1960s, Khelil worked for the World Bank in Latin American countries for many years. Fluent in Spanish, French, English and Arabic, he played a key role in the restructuring of Latin American economies under World Bank financed programmes. He had a role in the Latin American countries' energy sector as well. As such, he is ideally suited for OPEC diplomacy.

Since taking over Khelil has made some groundbreaking moves for Algerian energy diplomacy. Among other things, he has (a) begun investment activities by Sonatrach in Latin America, (b) established a good rapport with the Iranian government even before becoming minister which led eventually to a resumption of diplomatic relations between Algeria and Iran in September 2000, and (c) developed close ties with the other African petroleum exporting countries, particularly Nigeria.

Khelil is a hands-on minister and, empowered by President Bouteflika, assumes direct control over the petroleum sector. He personally undertook the promotion of six E&P blocks offered to foreign firms in 2000. To attract more investors into the Algerian hydrocarbon sector, Khelil has also prepared a draft hydrocarbon law which, once passed by parliament in late 2001 or early 2002, will end Sonatrach's monopoly in the petroleum business turning it into a "truly commercial company" and a trans-national operator.

Khelil served as the OPEC president between November 2000 and the 118th OPEC meeting in November 2001. During his term, he reinforced the role of OPEC president, and it was at his suggestion that the ministers agreed they should meet more frequently from then on. Within OPEC, Khelil has tended to stay on a moderate line, somewhat close to the Saudi Arabian position (see a detailed profile in APS Review's Downstream Trends, Vol. 56, No. 8).