OilVoice - Sonatrach CEO Under Investigation For Corruption

Sonatrach CEO Under Investigation For Corruption

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil has confirmed that Mohamed Meziane, the head of state energy firm Sonatrach, is under judicial investigation and that a caretaker CEO has been named. Vice-President of Sonatrach "downstream" activity Adelhafid Feghouli has been appointed to act as interim Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil Company.

A number of Algerian papers report that yesterday, after a hearing at the Sidi M'Hamed Tribunal (Algiers), Meziane and his second-in-command Chawki Rahal were put under judicial control, while the general director's two children, the former director of the CPA (Algerian Popular Credit Bank) bank and his son, as well as other Sonatrach executives have been arrested. El Watan wrote that the preliminary inquiry, carried out by the military justice officials of the DRS (Department for Information and Security), concerns corruption and misuse of public funds in the assigning of contracts for transport and the canalising of hydrocarbons.

Sonatrach is the main energy producer in Algeria, a North African country which is a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and supplies about 20 percent of Europe's gas needs.