Energy Interdependence. The linkage of the Political Economy of Algeria´s natural gas with that of the Western Mediterranean region. A methodological approach

Abstract

There is a chronological parallelism between the surge of the natural gas sector in the Western Mediterranean and the setting up of the post-colonial Algerian economy in the early 1970s, which has led to the accretion of a series of cross-border and regional relationships of dependency. Because of Algeria’s overwhelming financial dependence on hydrocarbon resources (via economic rents), any attempt to modify the power relationship within its regional gas chain would immediately alter the way its political economy functions. This article presents a first outline of a methodological proposal aimed at analysing how the integration of the Algerian gas sector into regional gas chains in the Western Mediterranean affects the internal functioning of a rentier economy such as Algeria. By exploring the literature that helps capturing the relational effect between the Algerian domestic economy and the regional gas & oil structure of governance, the article suggests some analytical tools with the aim to evaluate the capacity of power and influence of each of the agents involved in the energy chain, from both Algeria and the other countries in the region