Morocco Discovers Major Oil Reserves Off Coast, Potential $100 Billion Windfall

Morocco has announced that it has found oil off the coast of Tarfaya and Ifni, near the Canary Islands. The Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), Amina Benkhadra, said last week, before the House of Representatives, that oil or gas has been discovered in 40 out of the 67 wells drilled between 2000 and 2022 in this area. This is in addition to the discovery of oil by the British company Europa Oil & Gas in the Agadir region, reports La Razon.

All these oil wells are worth more than 100 billion euros, the equivalent of Morocco’s GDP. Good news that has led Morocco to accelerate oil exploration near the Canary Islands, without even finishing clarifying the situation at the level of territorial waters with Spain. Europa Oil & Gas has been authorized by the Moroccan government to explore since the end of 2019 and its license has a duration of 25 years. The British company holds 75% of this project and the remaining 25% goes to ONHYM.

The Italian company Eni has also obtained its exploration license in Tarfaya, Sidi Ifni and Tan Tan since 2017. It has been authorized to drill on 23,900 square kilometers, up to 1,000 meters deep. Of the seven wells drilled over the past two decades, three were drilled in shallow waters, two of which, near the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, revealed the presence of oil.

The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, warned on Wednesday of Morocco’s intention to resume oil exploration near the Canary Islands, and invited President Pedro Sánchez to quickly start negotiations with Morocco to delimit the territorial waters between the two countries, in compliance with international law.