Issue 118 • 13 July 2007

Morocco works up LNG and other gas plans

Confronted by a looming power supply deficit, Morocco is finalising its plans for a regasification plant, and is even mooting a gas-to-power project in Mauritania, writes Jon Marks in Marrakech.

The use of natural gas to meet a looming electricity generation deficit has returned to the forefront of Moroccan energy planning, as more details emerge of an integrated LNG regasification plant project, as part of an evolving strategy to assure security of supply.

Morocco already uses natural gas offtake from the Maghreb-Europe Gasline (GME) – taking some 450m m3/yr to supply the Tahaddart independent power project in the north. The rest of its 800m m3/yr allocation of Algerian gas that passes through the 12.5bn m3/yr GME is paid in transit fees. But from 2009, state power company Office National de l’Electricité (ONE)’s innovative Aïn Beni Mathar ‘hybrid’ solar thermal plant will take the rest of this gas allocation to power its turbines.

Other sources of supply must be found if Morocco is to enlarge its gas consumption, as further enlargement of the GME to import more gas from Algerian state company Sonatrach does not seem to be on the agenda.

In an opening speech to the Africa Power Forum conference in Marrakech on 5 July, organised by Casablanca-based i-Conférences with strong backing from ONE, Energy and Mines Minister Mohammed Boutaleb looked forward to the regasification programme and said a decision would be made soon on one of two construction sites.
Speaking in Marrakech on 6 July, Said El Aoufir, director of combustible fuels and hydrocarbons in the Ministry of Energy and Mines, noted that by 2013, power stations, refining and industry will require imports of some 3.25bn m3/yr, to come from LNG. Consumption levels are then slated to rise further, with projects like the country’s second major oil refinery, at Jorf Lasfar, scheduled for 2016. The government envisages importing 10bn m3/yr of LNG by 2020, El Aoufir said.

This will be landed at a potential 5bn m3/yr terminal to be built either on the Mediterranean coast near Tangier or on the Atlantic at Jorf Lasfar. Even though refiner Samir and power plants in Mohammedia will be big consumers, it seems the industrial city near Casablanca will not be house for the planned LNG project, which is being promoted by the public/private trio of ONE, the Akwa group led by Aziz Akhannouch and Samir, controlled by the Swedish-registered Saudi-owner Corral Petroleum Holding.

An institutional framework is being put in place to support LNG’s arrival, with a new legal framework being drawn up to regulate the infrastructure’s installation and use, as well as setting out structures for tariffs and taxation. The law – which is expected to pass through the government’s inter-ministerial committee in 2008 – is expected to confirm that future power station investments will have tax-free status (except for VAT).

Pipeline scheme

A decision on whether Tangier or Jorf Lasfar will host the regasification plant will be made by an inter-ministerial committee “very soon”, El Aoufir told African Energy.

Whichever city gets the regas plant, both will benefit from the project. A 400km-500km natural gas pipeline is planned running inland from Tangier to Jorf Lasfar, with spurs leading off it to feed power plants serving Casablanca, Rabat, Kenitra, Fes and other urban centres along the route.

LNG imports are not the only possibility for using gas to supply Morocco with more electricity. Officials used the Africa Power Forum to advance the kingdom’s claims to regional leadership in promoting projects in poorer Sahel states (see AE view). These projects include interconnection with Mauritania.

According to ONE director of planning Mohammed Fadili, this interconnection – passing through the still disputed Western Sahara, which has been fully interconnected to ONE’s grid – could prove a central element of a more ambitious project to exploit Mauritanian gas reserves. Moroccan officials believe the interconnection would make it feasible to develop offshore gas reserves that might supply an onshore power station to supply Mauritania and the Moroccan market.