Morocco is committed to regasification

Oct 14, 2024

Morocco has planned the construction of three regasification plants, one of them in Nador and the other two on the Atlantic side of the country, one of them in the vicinity of Western Sahara, a region considered by the Moroccan state as part of its southern provinces.

Thus, Morocco's Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development plans to erect three regasification platforms. One of them near the Mediterranean coast, in the vicinity of Nador, and the other two near the Atlantic Ocean.

The first regasification stations will become operational in 2027 after "a strategic memorandum of understanding between representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Equipment and Water and the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development" was initialled in March, as officially reported.

The agreement involves various official entities such as the National Ports Agency (ANP), the National Office of Electricity and Water (ONEE), the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), the port of Nador West Med and Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM), with the aim of "reinforcing the coordination of public authorities with a view to the accelerated implementation of the programme for the sustainable development of gas infrastructures", as reported by L'Économiste.

Morocco continues to focus on the natural gas sector and is trying to move away from other, even more polluting sources. Furthermore, the Moroccan state is seeking to promote even cleaner energies with less environmental impact, such as wind, solar and green hydrogen. As the Moroccan Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, herself pointed out, the objective is that by 2030, 52% of the national energy mix will be based on renewable energies.

Morocco is committed to protecting the environment, as demonstrated by the latest CEOWorld report for 2024, which ranks the Moroccan kingdom sixth out of 63 countries evaluated for its work on climate protection.

The Moroccan kingdom is committed to the fight against climate change and is a leader in the Arab world in this area, as indicated by the report, which ranks Egypt 18th in the world, Algeria 50th, the United Arab Emirates 61st and Saudi Arabia 63rd.

Morocco thus ranks a very remarkable sixth out of 63 countries evaluated for its climate protection efforts. CEOWorld's annual scorecard ranks countries in four key categories: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.

A regasification plant is an industrial facility that exists between the extraction of liquefied natural gas and the natural gas distribution network. It is where the process that converts liquefied natural gas into natural gas takes place.

In the regasification process, the liquefied natural gas is transported to the vaporisation systems, where the temperature of the liquefied gas is raised using seawater, thus converting the liquid into gas.

Under Moroccan plans, the port of Nador West Med will be equipped with a gas pipeline, connected to the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), and will be used mainly to feed ONEE's combined cycle gas-fired power stations, which combine combustion and steam turbines, including those of Aïn Béni Mathar and Tahaddart, to produce electricity.

This project will be followed in the short term by another regasification platform, built along the Atlantic coast, near the Jorf Lasfar industrial estate (17 km south of El Jadida), or in Mohammedia, as reported by La Razon.

"Studies will soon be launched to determine which of these two ports will finally be chosen. And the service to the industrial basins will be decisive in this choice", in order to meet the needs of many industrial players who wish to make a transition in their energy consumption, opting for natural gas instead of fuel, and in order to help the development of new activities (production of glass, steel, etc.).

The third and last platform will be built near the port of Dakhla Atlantique by 2030 and will be connected to the Mauritanian and Senegalese networks, as well as to the future Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline which is at an advanced stage of planning. This pipeline will be the longest underwater installation of its kind in the world. Its capacity will be approximately 30 billion cubic metres and its length will be around 7,000 kilometres. It will cover some 5,600 kilometres on the high seas, plus a further 1,700 kilometres over land. The cost will be around 25 billion euros.

All these new facilities will generate great wealth and many jobs, not only for Morocco, but also for many other African countries as part of the Moroccan kingdom's plan to promote the country's Atlantic coastline and to promote and encourage access for many African countries to this side of the Atlantic so that they can access a very important route such as the Atlantic Ocean, which provides a link to the American continent, which is a very important economic and commercial opportunity for nations that can see their economies multiply exponentially.

The Dakhla area, in the vicinity of Western Sahara, could also benefit from the activity of a new regasification platform near the port of Dakhla Atlantic.

Morocco proposes for Western Sahara a formula of broad autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, respecting the resolutions of the United Nations (UN), with a view to resolving the Saharawi conflict that has lasted for more than four decades since Spain's departure from the area as a colonial power.

The Moroccan formula, as opposed to the one advocated by the Polisario Front based on the holding of a referendum on independence for the Sahrawi people, has the support of many important nations such as the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and even Spain, and seeks greater economic, political and social development in the region.