Algiers, Jul 24 (IANS): Fuel traffickers smuggle some 1.5 billion litres every year in Algeria, Minister of Energy and Mines Youcef Yousfi has said.

"Some 1.5 billion litres are smuggled out of the country illegally. This is worth one billion DZA ($15 million)," Xinhua quoted Yousfi as saying.

According to APS news agency, Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said 25 percent of the domestic production of fuel is illegally exported to neighbouring nations, and termed this phenomenon "an economic security issue".

These reactions on fuel smuggling were triggered by disturbances in fuel supply in the regions located in the western and eastern borders of the country, the report said.

Kablia said Tlemcen province, 530 km west of Algiers along the border with Morocco, and with about one million inhabitants, consumes more fuel than the capital Algiers with its three million inhabitants.

The report said fuel smugglers are motivated by low prices in this North African nation ranked as the world's third cheapest country for fuel after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.