The central Maghreb combines commercial ports, hydrocarbon terminals and the mooring points of the gas pipelines that cross the Mediterranean towards Europe. It's a closed market, with state or para-state contracting, where a foreign professional's access nearly always runs through an international contractor.
Between Morocco and Libya there's a stretch of Mediterranean coast that rarely comes up in conversations about commercial diving, yet it concentrates energy infrastructure of continental importance. Tunisia and Algeria are countries with active ports, hydrocarbon terminals, and the exit points of the gas pipelines that cross the Mediterranean towards Europe. There is underwater work, and quite a lot of it. What there isn't is an open market that a professional can simply show up to.
Understanding how access works is, in this region, more important than understanding the work itself, because the work is technically conventional and access is anything but.
Two different countries with a common pattern
Algeria is a hydrocarbon country. Its economy depends heavily on gas and oil exports, managed through the state company, and that structure shapes everything else: the big contracting decisions are state or para-state ones, projects are awarded by tender, and the presence of foreign companies is conditioned by partnership and local-content rules. Hydrocarbon production is mostly onshore, in the Sahara, but the exporting is done by sea, and that's what generates underwater work on the coast.
Tunisia is smaller and more diversified, with an economy that combines light industry, agriculture, tourism, fishing and a modest energy sector. It has active commercial ports, ferry traffic with Europe, a sizeable fishing fleet, and small-scale hydrocarbon activity. Its industrial fabric is more accessible than Algeria's, and its relationship with Europe, especially with France and Italy, is closer.
The common pattern is that, in both cases, the underwater work that matters is tied to infrastructure that belongs to, or matters to, the state, and it's contracted through formal procedures in which foreign companies enter as awarded bidders or as partners of a local entity. There's no informal, fast-moving market for hiring divers like the one that characterises ports in the northern Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean gas pipelines
The most characteristic piece of infrastructure on this coast is the subsea pipelines carrying Algerian gas to Europe. Algeria is connected to the European continent by gas pipelines that cross the Mediterranean, one of them running through Tunisian territory and the waters of the Sicilian Channel towards Italy, and another running directly towards the Iberian Peninsula. These are strategic pipelines of great length, running at considerable depth for part of their route.
For commercial diving, what matters isn't the deep-water part of those lines — which is inspected and maintained with remotely operated vehicles and specialised assets — but the ends: the coastal compressor stations, the shore-crossing areas, the shallow sections and the associated facilities. That's where a diver is actually needed, and that's where the region's most technically demanding underwater work is concentrated: tie-in and flange work, checking burial and protection, inspecting mooring structures, and cathodic protection readings.
This kind of work is carried out by international subsea services contractors, who mobilise their own equipment, assets and personnel. That's exactly the route through which foreign professionals get in.
Terminals, single-point moorings and ports
Crude and refined product exports go through marine terminals, and some of them use single-point mooring systems — SPMs — sited offshore and connected to shore by subsea pipelines. These facilities have an intensive maintenance cycle: chain and mooring-system inspection, checking floating and submerged hoses, checking the swivel joints, inspecting the connecting pipeline, and cleaning structures. It's well-defined, recurring work with heavy documentation requirements, and SPM and terminal maintenance is probably the most in-demand speciality in the region.
Alongside that is ordinary harbour work. Algiers, Oran, Annaba, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria; Rades, Sfax, Bizerte and Gabes in Tunisia, among others. In all of them the portfolio is the usual one: quay and foundation inspection, checking and replacing fenders and mooring fittings, marine construction, dredging support, and vessel servicing including hull cleaning, underwater hull inspection and propeller clearing. This segment is mostly covered by local companies and national personnel.
There's also a significant fishing sector in both countries, with fishing ports, developing aquaculture facilities, and the minor underwater work that goes with them. It isn't a high-rate market, but it keeps local professionals employed year-round.
How you actually get in
Best to be direct about this. A foreign diver doesn't get work in Tunisia or Algeria by sending applications to local companies. The reasons are structural: employment policy prioritises national personnel, hiring foreigners requires visa and permit processing that only a company with administrative capacity can handle, and the local industry has neither the need nor the mechanism to bring in someone from outside.
The route that works is the indirect one. An international contractor wins a project — a pipeline inspection, a terminal maintenance campaign, a harbour job funded by a multilateral body — and mobilises a team that includes its own personnel for the functions that require accredited competence, backed up by local staff. The foreign professional arrives as part of that team, under contract to their home company or to a recruitment agency, with all the paperwork handled by the company.
That means that the real way to "look for work in Algeria" is to look for work with the contractors operating across the Mediterranean and to demonstrate the experience those projects require: terminals, pipelines, documented inspection. The industry company directory and the usual channels for empleo offshore are the logical starting point; the geography of the destination comes afterwards.
Language, conditions and expectations
French is a notable asset throughout the region. Although Arabic is the official language and international projects are run in English, a good deal of technical documentation, dealings with port authorities, and everyday conversation in industrial settings runs in French. A professional who speaks it has a relational advantage that others don't, and in closed markets, relationships are exactly what opens doors.
As for conditions, a project contract package in this region normally includes accommodation, transport and rotation, and serious companies apply their own safety and travel protocols. Before signing, it's worth checking two specific things: what insurance and medical evacuation cover is on offer, and what your own country's current official travel advice says about the areas you'll be working in. These are legitimate questions that any professional contractor answers without any trouble, and the quality of the answer says a lot about the company.
The realistic expectation is that of a project market: defined contracts, a good rate while it lasts, and no guaranteed continuity afterwards. It isn't a destination to settle in, but a region to work in when a job comes up. For a Spanish-speaking professional already working around the Mediterranean, it fits well with the pattern of Morocco and the North African Atlantic and Egypt and the Suez Canal: regions where the work exists, where the technique is accessible, and where everything depends on being on the right company's list when the project is awarded. Anyone who wants to be on that list needs to show specific experience in terminals and pipelines, and keep their certifications and the survival training that energy-sector clients demand without exception, up to date.
Frequently asked questions
Is there saturation diving in Tunisia or Algeria?
Not as a routine activity of the local market. Everyday underwater work in both countries is handled with surface supply at moderate depths. Deep operations tied to energy infrastructure are carried out by international contractors who mobilise their own assets and teams, so any saturation positions that do come up are filled from outside, not from the local market.
Can a Spanish or Latin American diver work there?
Yes, but almost never through direct local hiring. The realistic route is to arrive as part of the team of an international contractor awarded a specific project, with a work visa handled by the company. Both countries apply local-content rules that prioritise national employment, and a foreigner gets in when they bring a competency that isn't available in the country.
What language do you need?
Arabic is the official language, and French serves as the technical and administrative working language across much of both countries' industrial sectors. International projects operate in English. For a foreign professional, French is a considerable asset and makes a real difference in dealings with clients, port authorities and local staff.
What kind of work predominates?
Harbour and vessel-servicing work — quay inspection, hull cleaning and repair, fenders, marine construction — maintenance of hydrocarbon terminals and SPMs, inspection of pipelines and gas-pipeline mooring points, and work tied to fishing and coastal facilities. It's a classic surface-supplied portfolio.
Is it a safe market to work in?
Conditions vary by country and by area, and the international companies operating there apply their own security, accommodation and travel protocols. Before accepting a contract, it's worth checking your home country's current official travel advice and confirming what security, insurance and medical evacuation cover the employer offers — which in these destinations is not a minor detail.
How do you find work in this region?
Through the international subsea services and marine construction contractors who bid for projects in the region, not by approaching local companies from abroad. Being registered with the recruitment agencies that work for the Mediterranean energy sector, and having proven experience in terminals, SPMs or pipelines, is what makes an offer from this region come up.
Published 11 September 2026 · By Arthur More, professional saturation diver
Photo: omardrabdulkadir · CC BY-SA via Openverse
This article is part of our in-depth guide to commercial diver salary, country by country — the complete picture, with sources.
This article is part of our in-depth guide to commercial diver salary, country by country — the complete picture, with sources.
This article is part of our in-depth guide to commercial diver salary, country by country — the complete picture, with sources.
This article is part of our in-depth guide to commercial diver salary, country by country — the complete picture, with sources.