A special correspondent reports: Top level talks between 0. Wormser, director of economic affairs for the French Foreign Ministry, B. Boumaza, Algerian Minister of Economy, began last week, only a few days after a triumphant Moscow visit by Ben Bella, The Russians had agreed to build a tanker for Algeria and to staff an Algerian petroleum institute to train Algerians for the oil industry. The French oil industry is convinced that the De Gaulle Government will concede major points to tough-talking Boumaza in order to retain its already badly weakened political links with Algeria.
The Boumaza demands are simple. He wants to scrap the agreements made at Evian. instead he wants direct participation by the Algerian Government, with majority control, in every phase of the industry. Boumaza repeated his previous compleints that the royalty sand depletion provisions set out in the Evian agreements leaves Algéria with a "pauper's share" of Saharan oil income, He also made some comments on the economic agreement with Russia. The Soviet Union will "create" a petroleum institute designed “for the massive and fast training of Algerian petroleum technicians," "If the French companies would do the same," he added, "We would applaud with both hands because we think this is exactly a field for peaceful competition. We called upon the Soviet Union to train technicians because the aid of the petroleum companies in this respect is practically non-existent. Soviet help is most weicome,"
Based on Oil and Gas Journal reports