Morocco Poised to Become Major African Gas Exporter, Report Suggests

The American NGO "Global Energy Monitor" has published a report on gas production in Africa. According to its explanations, the monitoring data shows that 84% of the new reserves under development are located with the new entrants in the African gas market, including Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Mauritania, South Africa, Ethiopia or Morocco. These countries could surpass Nigeria, Egypt, Libya and Algeria, which have historically had the most proven gas reserves and production.

Morocco is well positioned to become a gas exporter in Africa. Its current reserves are around 39 billion cubic meters of gas, the NGO reveals. This confirms the comments of Graham Lyon, CEO of the British company Sound Energy in charge of oil and gas exploration in Morocco. In December, he had, in an interview, declared that "there is a project in Morocco that will provide about 100 million cubic meters per year of liquefied natural gas to industrial markets" and that the kingdom "has significant natural gas reserves estimated at more than 20 trillion cubic feet, capable of making it an exporter."

According to the "Global Energy Monitor" report, Mauritania has 574 billion cubic meters, part of which comes from joint reserves with Senegal, which are estimated at 566 billion cubic meters. According to the NGO, Mozambique, Mauritania, Tanzania, South Africa and Ethiopia could represent more than half of gas production in Africa by 2038.