When a Tunisian turns on their air conditioner on a July afternoon, they do not suspect that they are triggering, several hundred kilometers away, a chain of valves, compressors and contracts on which the electricity of an entire country depends. In 2025, nearly 58% of the gas consumed in Tunisia crossed the border, and nearly three-quarters of that gas ended up in power plants.
Gas is the country’s discreet backbone. It is hardly noticed, because it cannot be seen, is not stored, and never barges into conversations, except when it is missing. Yet it powers factories, heats hundreds of thousands of homes, and, above all, produces the bulk of national electricity. Understanding its year 2025 is to understand where Tunisian energy security is really at stake.
According to the Energy Annals 2025 published by the Tunisian Association of Oil and Gas (ATPG), which rely on data from STEG and the National Observatory of Energy and Mines (ONEM), national natural gas consumption reached 5,442 ktep, versus 5,000 ktep in 2024, i.e., a rise of 9%.
The ktep, or thousand tonnes of oil equivalent, is the unit that allows comparing all energies with one another. Let us simply note that demand jumped while production, on the other hand, declined.
A country that produces less and less of what it consumes, more and more
The national gas production fell to 1,259 ktep in 2025, down 6.5%. It now covers only 23.2% of needs. By way of reference, it peaked at 2,647 ktep in 2005. In twenty years, it has been halved. Almost all major fields are affected by this decline, from Miskar (down 7%) to Hasdrubal (down 9%), up to Nawara, which falls by 18%.
The fiscal gas, the portion that the State takes in kind from Algerian gas transiting through the territory, has also fallen by 5%, to 1,068 ktep. It represents 19.2% of the supply. The remaining piece is imports, which has become the adjustment variable: from 2,544 ktep in 2024, it rose to about 3,138 ktep, a 23% increase. In 2000, it weighed only 489 ktep. It has thus been multiplied by more than six in a quarter of a century.
The real customer of gas is electricity
