Gas plan: Will the 2021-2050 vision succeed where its predecessor failed?

Energy is a key sector for any country and Morocco has, for several years, launched plans that it has adjusted as it goes along to curb its dependence on imports, while waiting to reach an energy mix where renewable energies are more present.

The stakes of the national gas plan and the 2021-2050 vision are even more important in the economic and global geopolitical context in which we live. In this sense, the CMC has devoted an analysis of the new sectoral policy launched in 2021.

It should be remembered that the energy sector is a key point in economic and social development policies. It is for this reason that from the 90s of the last century, the refining and distribution of petroleum products were subject to the liberal option and to Morocco's stated desire to open up to the international market and its Euro-Mediterranean environment.

The energy strategy initiated in 2009 was concerned with ensuring security of energy supply at the best cost.

The efforts made have focused on consolidating the national energy potential and on its diversification, in particular by developing renewable resources and promoting energy efficiency. In 1996, Gazoduc Maghreb Europe (GME) was incorporated into this framework, which, in its delivery of Algerian gas to Spain and Portugal, granted a royalty in kind to Morocco.

This windfall favored the installation, in 2005, of the Tahaddart combined cycle power plant (384 MW) and the commissioning of the Aïn Béni Mathar thermo-solar power plant (472 MW) in 2009.

The seeds of failure from 2018

From the outset, the CMC recalls that in 2018, the decision-makers realized that the objectives of the gas project in Morocco could not be achieved, for 2021, as previously predicted.

The components of the gas plan, launched in 2014, which included the Jorf Lasfar gas terminal, the maritime jetty for receiving liquefied natural gas (LNG) LNG tankers, storage spaces, power plants and other gas pipelines, required the mobilization of some 4.6 billion dollars. This megaproject is called “Gas to Power”.

The aim of all these constituents was to limit the use of coal, to increase the proportion of natural gas in the country's energy mix and above all to overcome the energy dependence on Algerian gas, taken during its passage to Europe via the Maghreb Europe (GME) gas pipeline.

The latter contractually authorized Morocco to withdraw up to 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year, half of which as passing royalties. The capricious coercive spirit of Algerian decision-makers put an end to the GME, by refusing to renew the contract which expired on October 31, 2021.

The next generation, scheduled for this date, to take charge of the import of liquefied natural gas, lacked anticipation and did not meet the appointment set by the plan, notes the CMC.

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— Geoffrey M. Ogle Tue Oct 09 22:03:14 +0000 2012