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There have been further delays to the 400MW first phase of the Noor PV II project. The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) had invited the 32 prequalified bidders to submit bids by 2 August, but that has been extended to end-September – the third such delay since expressions of interest were finally launched in January.

AIM-listed Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) (EOG) is seeking a farm-out of its Inezgane offshore permit, in the Agadir Basin, which it was awarded in November 2019.

Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen) head Mustapha Bakkoury has made a return to public life after a period in isolation, following royal displeasure at his performance. A number of observers told African Energy that high-profile official public outings meant Bakkoury was back in business.

London AIM-listed Sound Energy announced that its Sound Energy Morocco East (Semel) subsidiary’s micro liquified natural gas (mLNG) phase one development plan at Tendrara had secured a binding ten-year, take-or-pay LNG sale and purchase agreement with, and equity placing by, major Moroccan corporate Afriquia Gaz.

Predator Oil and Gas Holdings reported “good gas shows” from drilling of MOU-1 in the onshore Guercif licence area in northern Morocco, adjacent to the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline. The Jersey-based company said on 6 July the results supported the pre-drill geological interpretation of a deep gas ‘kitchen’ connected to shallower reservoirs.

 In the wake of a diplomatic crisis involving migrant flows and the disputed Western Sahara, a recent report from Madrid suggested Morocco’s King Mohammed VI had called an end to negotiations on the extension of gas supply contracts via the 11.5 bcm/yr capacity Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME).

As the hype around hydrogen gets ever louder, governments and developers are putting forward grandiose plans to manufacture green hydrogen – ‘the new oil and gas’ – across the continent. African Energy has been sceptical about the hydrogen boom’s relevance to economies that are hard pressed to finance basic needs, but high hopes are being generated in countries like Mauritania and Namibia, where schemes to install an unimaginable 65GW of hydrogen-driven capacity are promised, writes John Hamilton.

Having signalled over two years ago that the government was scaling down its much-anticipated integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) scheme – whose original timetable envisaged imports of 5bcm/yr (at one stage increased to 10bcm/yr) from 2021-22 – a more pragmatic project, involving floating regasification and storage units (FRSUs) has finally reached the call for expressions of interest (EoI) phase.

The impact of structural reform and the energy transition is markedly different around the continent. North Africa experienced a sharp – if probably temporary – slowdown in the growth of renewables last year, when the Maghreb and Egypt accounted for 4.3GW of the 7.7GW added on the continent, including 3.1GW of new gas capacity. 

When most African governments struggle to fund even the most essential projects, costly new technologies may seem a luxury. But rethinking how they can be applied to energy networks can be a valuable exercise for policy-makers and investors: ‘disruptive technology’ can have far-reaching benefits, or prove a red herring for cash-strapped economies.

London AIM-listed Sound Energy has given further details of its reshaped project to develop and monetise Tendrara’s 377bcf discovered natural gas resource, securing a powerful local partner prior to it raising funds for its initial micro liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and moving to a final investment decision.

Announcing Q1 21 results on 20 May, SDX Energy chief executive Mark Reid thanked London-based multilateral the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for renewing a $10m credit facility. The EBRD in December signed an agreement for Project Green Light II to provide SDX Energy Morocco up to $25m from a senior secured reserve-based loan, to part-finance its $65m investment plan to expand operations in the kingdom.

SDX has started the first phase of its 2021 drilling campaign, which will comprise up to five wells over the year. The first phase will consist of three appraisal/development wells, which will target an estimated total of 1.3 bcf of P90/1.8 bcf of P50 gross unrisked prospective recoverable resources in its Gharb Basin acreage.

A proposal by Essex-based start-up Xlinks to bring huge amounts of power generated from wind and solar in the Moroccan Sahara to the UK via a 3,800km, 3.6GW subsea HVDC cable is less outlandish than may first appear. Xlinks fits into a broader revival of interest in Africa-Europe connections, with growing momentum behind net-zero carbon targets and the low prices now achieved by renewables.

The launch of a project to bring renewable power generated in the southern part of Morocco directly to the UK is one of five high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnections now planned between North Africa and Europe. Alongside the Moroccan Xlinks project, similar schemes in Tunisia and Egypt are united by the common conceptual approach of enabling European countries to replace the 60% of primary energy now imported as fossil fuels. However, the underlying political and commercial motivations, as well as the technological details, differ in each case.