Dublin-based Petroceltic International last week revealed that investors are, not surprisingly, more interested than they've been in decades, hoping to catch a bit of the seemingly inexorable upward movement in oil and gas prices. A new share placement raised $38.9m.

Craven said the company will use the funding to back drilling off the Donegal coast and in its Algeria 'acreage'. The company has, in a 75/25 production sharing contract with Algerian state-owned Sonatrach, a plot in the middle of the Sahara extending over 10,800 square kilometres . . . nearly twice the area of County Galway.

The investor mood in the London was buzzing", Craven said. We did four days of meetings, nine or 10 a day, and the reaction was so positive." The 154-million share placement, arranged by Davy and Mirabaud, was oversubscribed. Craven retains about 6% after the fundraising round.

We've had great support from private clients here, " he said. But the Irish institutions have been reluctant to get into resource shares in the past few years, and now they might be missing the boat."

Political instability in Algeria may have had something to do with their skittishness. In 1991 the army stopped a second round of voting after a surprise showing by the Islamic Salvation Front, sparking a guerrilla war that has only recently lost some of its momentum. But the insurgency was focused in the Atlas mountains in the north of the country, whereas the oil and gas deposits are to be found in the empty deserts of the south and centre of the country.

Petroceltic won the permit in 2004, but political approval took until last September. It is estimated that there are at least four trillion cubic feet of gas and 400 million barrels of oil in nine oil and gas discoveries in the area. Being able to sell the gas is a relatively recent development, and getting it to markets in Europe will be possible using nearby infrastructure from BP among others.

Craven began his career working with Gulf Oil in the 1970s, when oil was $30 to $35 a barrel (around $80 in today's terms), and has seen the industry in both lean and fat times. He speaks glowingly about Algeria and its potential . . .increasing stability, tourist-friendly beaches, house prices going up in Algiers, money being spent on PCs and mobile phones. But he also hopes Algeria puts its resources windfall to better use than many Gulf states.

China and India are buying up anything they can lay their hands on without regard to the economics, " he said, as portrayed in the film. And the treatment of oil workers can be all too accurate."

He hopes the Algerians, who are on the brink of privatising Sonatrach, use their windfall to build schools rather than palaces. If there's a vacuum, the fundamentalists will fill it, " he said.