Hassi Messaoud

Hassi Messaoud (Arabic: : حاسي مسعود) is a town in Ouargla province, southeast Algeria, north Africa. Oil was discovered there in 1956 and the town's prominence has grown rapidly since then. It is an oil refinery town named after the first oil well. A water well, dug in 1917, can be found on the airport side of town. It is considered as the First Energy town in Algeria where all the big oil and gas companies have offices and bases.

History

The Name Hassi Messaoud means "the well of Messaoud" in Arabic.Messaoud Rouabeh son of ElHadj Rabah son of Amira, was from the tribes of Chaanba (Arabic tribes living near the region of Ghardaia and Ouargla) and exactly from the tribe named "Oulad Belkacem" (sons of Belkacem), he was born in 1875 near Ouargla, he dug other water wells in the region, the last one before that in Hassi Messaoud was the well of Doubba, and since that well was crowded by Bedouin using it, he decided to travel elsewhere to find another water point, when traveling south east from Ouargla, he found some green areas in the place named now "El Haicha", he decided to dig a well there and he found a liquid with a bizarre color and odor, The information didn't last to reach the French colons at that time, from that time i.e. 1917, they named the region as "Hassi Messaoud".

Before the discovery of oil...
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