Moroccan Fuel Prices Soar as Distributors’ Profits Draw Scrutiny

"The prices charged at service stations in Morocco exceed the level they should reach during the first half of January 2025, with a gap of more than one dirham for diesel and nearly two and a half dirhams for the price of gasoline," notes El Houssine Yamani, secretary general of the national union of oil and gas industries under the CDT, to Hespress. According to his explanations, the price per liter of diesel should not exceed 9.98 dirhams, compared to 11.30 dirhams applied at the stations. As for the price per liter of gasoline, it should not exceed 11.06 dirhams, compared to 13.20 dirhams charged at the stations during the first half of January.

The union leader is saddened by the fact that despite the unsuccessful attempts of the Competition Council, the profits of the players in the sector have increased after the decision to blindly liberalize prices. "These profits have gone from around 600 dirhams per ton to more than 2,000 dirhams per ton of diesel and more than 2,500 dirhams per ton of gasoline," he specifies. Based on these findings, Yamani advocates a overhaul of the oil regulatory framework. "The liberalization of fuel prices, the urgency to remove subsidies and the liberalization of gas prices, as well as the preparation for the liberalization of electricity prices, require particular attention to the extent of the serious damage that this orientation causes in terms of inflation and purchasing power of citizens," he believes.

For Yamani, the current situation cannot be justified by direct social support decisions and other slogans that "do not stand up to the harshness of the lack and difficulties of life experienced by all Moroccans, especially the most disadvantaged, as well as the inhabitants of rural areas, who suffer from the vagaries of the climate with the succession of drought years combined with an injustice of social policies". He also calls for reducing the tax rate applied, restarting oil refining at the "Samir" refinery in Mohammedia, and reorganizing the energy sector within the framework of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy. He also called for catching up on the delay in implementing projects strengthening energy sovereignty.