Marruecos confirma que recibirá gas desde España a través del Gasoducto Magreb-Europa
Leila Benali, Morocco's Minister for Energy Transition, confirmed the reopening of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline in reverse to receive gas from Spain. In this way, the North African country will be able to obtain liquefied natural gas that will be transformed from regasification plants in Spain using the aforementioned gas facility.
"For the first time, Morocco is on the international gas market. Morocco has never bought liquefied natural gas before," said Leila Benali, adding that the Kingdom has already received a dozen proposals for medium-term contracts and that the results of the call for tenders will be known in the coming days. The Minister for Energy Transition said that these new gas supply contracts will make it possible to relaunch the two power plants of Tahaddart (in the northern region of Tangier) and Ain Beni Mathar (in the east), which produce about 10% of the electricity consumed in the country, as reported by Bladi.
Leila Benali insisted that Morocco will not be supplied with gas from either the Spanish or European markets. Spain will only make its infrastructure available to Morocco (Spanish part of the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline through regasification) to transport gas to the Alawi kingdom by reversing the flows of the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline, as media outlets such as the newspaper La Razón reported. The Minister for Energy Transition clarified that contracts will be signed in the short term and that the first deliveries are expected in the coming days.
The Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which links the Hassi R'Mel natural gas fields in Algeria with Spain, passing through Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar, was closed last October by decision of the Algerian state, due to poor relations with Morocco, and an agreement has been reached to reuse it. In this regard, the minister pointed out that her country is finalising the purchase of liquefied natural gas from the international market, which will then be regasified in Spain's infrastructures and transported to the Maghreb country via the aforementioned gas infrastructure.
Algerian gas through the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline reached Morocco until the end of October, when the gas infrastructure was shut down in the face of the diplomatic crisis between Algiers and Rabat, which was exacerbated by the break in relations announced in August by Algeria, a major political rival of the Alaouite kingdom in North Africa and the main supporter of the Polisario Front, Morocco's enemy in the Western Sahara issue.
Now, in order to guarantee its energy autonomy, the Kingdom plans to develop its own regasification plants, as announced by Leila Benali, especially in view of the problems caused by the conflict with Algeria, a major gas supplier. Morocco would now use Spain's regasification plant capacity, taking into account the good relations that exist between the two countries right now after re-establishing diplomatic ties, but Morocco's intention is to be able to have greater energy autonomy with its own regasification plants.
In this regard, it is also worth noting that Morocco is playing a leading role due to important natural gas discoveries in its own territory. Since 2000, there has been good news in this respect; of the 67 wells opened by 11 companies in the North African country to extract natural gas, it has been demonstrated that 40 of them have large quantities of gas and their forthcoming start-up does not require major investments as they are close to the gas pipeline that passes through the north of Morocco and are also close to other industrial infrastructures. Among the companies working on gas extraction in Moroccan territory are the British companies Chariot Oil and Gas and Sound Energy, and the Spanish company Repsol.
Amina Benkhadra, director general of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), appeared before the Infrastructure, Energy, Mines and Environment Committee of the House of Representatives to explain these important developments in the gas sector in the Alawi kingdom, as reported by Al-Akhbar, and echoed by Le360.
Minister Leila Benali's announcement comes after Morocco and Spain normalised relations thanks to Spain's recognition of Morocco's proposal for broad autonomy for Western Sahara under the sovereignty of the Kingdom as the most serious, credible and realistic way to resolve the Sahrawi conflict that has lasted more than 40 years. This recovery of diplomatic ties was staged with the recent reception in Rabat by King Mohammed VI for Pedro Sánchez, President of the Spanish government, in the middle of Ramadan, as a friendly gesture between neighbouring and allied countries. All this after turbulent months in which there were problems between the two nations arising from events such as the reception in Spanish territory of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, or the massive entry of illegal immigrants across the border of Ceuta.
After tense episodes, various gestures of rapprochement followed, such as those made by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, who replaced the controversial Arancha González Laya, who was deeply involved in the Ghali case. But underlying all this was the fact that Morocco was missing greater Spanish support on the Western Sahara issue, which has now arrived with the latest positive announcement from Pedro Sánchez's government.