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Saudi giant Acwa Power has agreed to supply electricity to Gotion High Tech Group’s planned Kenitra gigafactory in what will be Morocco’s biggest ever merchant power deal. The agreement could open the door to bigger and even more transformative developments and will restore Acwa’s position in Morocco, which has been eroded in recent years, writes Our Casablanca Correspondent.

Some $10bn worth of deals were struck between Morocco and French energy and infrastructure companies during a late-October visit by Emmanuel Macron to the North African country, during which the French president offered strong support for Rabat’s claim to Western Sahara.

The power and water utility serving Morocco’s commercial capital has transferred from French private sector control and is now being run by the state-owned SRM C-S. The move underlines the extent to which African governments are looking for new management models for vital services and highlights how the private sector has failed to meet expectations in electricity distribution.

The scale of the green hydrogen (GH2) opportunity emerging in North Africa is potentially transformative for the region. However, to date just one tiny pilot project is up and running and there is still no firm evidence that giga-scale projects can be made bankable. If the prospect is a mirage, it is one that has taken in a swathe of respected global investors. With an ever-increasing amount riding on the outcome, failure will be a disaster, but success could revolutionise the fortunes of the region, writes John Hamilton.

The first round of land allocations in Morocco’s green hydrogen investment process may soon be completed and is likely to include substantial areas in the contested territory of Western Sahara. African Energy has identified projects requiring the installation of at least 72GW of wind and solar generation, and more are likely to follow.

Operator Energean and partner Chariot have reported difficulties in the recent drilling campaign on the offshore Anchois gas prospect, although some exploration work is continuing on what is Morocco’s largest uncommercialised gas discovery.

President Emmanuel Macron’s intervention on the Western Sahara question adds another level of complication and irritation to international relations in north-west Africa. His motive in spelling out support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory in a letter to King Mohammed VI, which he must have known would be immediately leaked to the media, is hard to explain. It puts major French business interests in Algeria in peril and will aggravate regional tensions. All sides will have to work hard to avoid an accidental escalation.

The imminent return of Casablanca-based power and water utility Lydec to public ownership marks an important step in what has been a drawn-out process, but major hurdles remain before the government’s new electricity distribution structure is firmly in place, write John Hamilton and our Casablanca correspondent.

Veolia Environnement’s sale of majority interest in Casablanca’s water and electricity provider to a new state-owned regional utility is part of a wider shift towards public ownership of the sector in Morocco.

Finland’s Wärtsilä has renewed its partnership with state utility Onee to maintain thermal power plants at Tan Tan and Dakhla.

Well-connected Moroccan interests have taken another big stake in a prospective natural gas play, with Al-Mada’s mining subsidiary Managem paying up to $45.2m for stakes in the Tendrara natural gas concession and nearby Grand Tendrara and Anoual permits.

The potential of Morocco’s ‘southern provinces’ to generate large amounts of solar and wind power does little for the main consumption centres much further north if the kingdom’s transmission systems can’t handle the electrons. As geopolitical perceptions shift, projects in the disputed Western Sahara to develop these renewables and transport the electricity northwards could offer opportunities for foreign investors – and France seems to have taken the bait, with an apparently significant change of policy that could lead to a major investment in HVDC connections between Dakhla and Casablanca.

The appointment of a younger generation executive who has spent his career in senior roles within TotalEnergies to run the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy is an indication of intent to advance a substantial pipeline of delayed and expensive projects, but to succeed Tarik Moufaddal will need to add political nous to his corporate abilities, writes Waly Dione Faye in Casablanca.

State agencies have new leadership, but Onee’s Tarik Hamane and Masen’s Tarik Moufaddal, their political masters and the wider electricity supply industry have big barriers to overcome if Morocco is to fulfil its much-vaunted renewable energy potential and provide a stable base for the next phases of the kingdom’s economic take-off, write John Hamilton and a Special Correspondent in Rabat.

London AIM-listed Chariot Energy has made a natural gas discovery at the second well in its maiden onshore drilling campaign in Morocco, following disappointing results at the first well.