According to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+), of which Algeria is a compliant member, a production increase of 547,000 barrels per day has been announced for September 2025. This decision caused an immediate drop in market prices: Brent fell to $68.87 per barrel, and WTI dropped to $66.51.
For a regime where 98% of export revenues come from hydrocarbons, every dip in oil prices sends shockwaves through the foundations of a state unable to reform. The Algerian system remains entirely dependent on a volatile oil rent, monopolized by a bureaucratic and military elite that refuses to diversify the economy, open the country to private investment, or support local entrepreneurship.
Grand speeches about “national development” poorly mask the reality: the state budget, social subsidies, imports of consumer goods, and the financing of institutions all rely on oil. At the slightest market turbulence, the entire country wavers, vulnerable to the worst economic and social scenarios.
Worse still, Algeria clings to an outdated foreign policy, pouring millions of dollars into sterile ideological causes such as that of the Polisario, instead of focusing on its youth’s future, infrastructure development, or the modernization of its productive sectors.
Meanwhile, Morocco—its neighbor and rival—continues to multiply its economic and diplomatic successes, attracting investors in renewable energy, textiles, automotive, and technology. Algeria, in contrast, remains stuck in a dying Soviet-style model, incapable of envisioning a post-oil future.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv