Office of the Historian

104. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan1

Washington, February 18, 1981

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Algeria.]

5. Liquefied Natural Gas Talks with Algeria: Talks over the price of Algerian LNG shipments to the US concluded today without agreement. We have no immediate need for the gas; the price the Algerians were asking, linked to crude oil, was higher than we pay for Canadian and Mexican imports.

We emphasized to the Algerians that the LNG issue was strictly commercial, and the failure of the talks should not prevent an improvement in US-Algerian relations. So far the Algerians seem to agree. (LOU)

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Agency File, Secretary Haig’s Evening Report (02/04/1981–03/13/1981). Confidential.↩