Algeria will Not Hit 2MB/D Target By 2010 - Will "Stabilize" At 1.5MB/D - Gas Will Expand - B'Berg

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Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Algeria, Africa's largest natural-gas producer, won't meet its target to raise oil output capacity to 2 million barrels a day by 2010, Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said.

``At 1.5 million, that's where we'll be stabilizing,'' Khelil told reporters today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where heads of state from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting this weekend.

The North African nation's oil production capacity stands at 1.45 million barrels a day, Mohamed Meziane, chairman of state- run oil company Sonatrach, said in an interview in the Saudi capital. Capacity hasn't risen as fast as planned for ``several reasons,'' including a shortage of contractors, he said.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601207&sid=ap_KYI8_UAzc&refer=energy