Algeria Halts Gas Pipeline to Spain via Morocco; Rabat Claims Preparedness

In a statement to Alyaoum24, a Moroccan diplomatic source assures that the Moroccan authorities have anticipated all scenarios concerning the future of the GME, whose contract expires on October 31 next. In this sense, Morocco has taken several options for its supply, including the import of liquefied natural gas by ship as well as its transport and storage. Among them, the creation of a company that will be called "Onhym Midstream Co". The government has already granted licenses to several companies to import natural gas by ship and transport it by tanker trucks to industrial areas.

It is also planned to build and operate floating liquefied natural gas terminals in the ports of Mohammédia, Kénitra and Nador, said the same source. Another option: the exploitation of the new Tendrara field near Figuig, scheduled to start in 2022. This field can provide a third of the electricity production needs, or about 300 million cubic meters per year.

The Moroccan Ministry of Energy and Mines has recently decided to put in place a national roadmap for the development of natural gas 2021-2050. The objectives of this roadmap are of several kinds: the creation of a regulated natural gas market by stimulating a gradual evolution of demand, the development of a structuring gas infrastructure project, access for industrialists and other consumers to competitive energy, improving the competitiveness of Moroccan exporting industrialists and the development of other ancillary subcontracting activities around the natural gas sector, etc.