Morocco’s Untapped Natural Gas Potential: 67 Wells Drilled, 40 Show Promise

Before the Commission on Infrastructure, Energy, Mines and Environment, Amina Benkhadra, Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), presented the potential of natural gas discovered in Morocco between 2000 and 2022. In total, 67 wells - of which 40 would contain more or less large quantities of natural gas - have been drilled by 11 different gas exploration companies, she said.

Significant quantities of gas and condensate have been discovered at the level of the Lower Triassic sandstone at Meskala, in the Essaouira basin, reports Le360. As for the Tendrara basin, it has, between 2016 and 2019, seen the drilling, by ONYHM and its partner Sound Energy, of five wells. After the discovery of gas quantities in two of these wells, a contract was signed with a view to their imminent exploitation. There was also the drilling of seven wells, including three in shallow water, off the Atlantic coast from Agadir to Tarfaya. Oil was discovered off Tarfaya and Sidi Ifni in two wells. Significant oil and gas indications have been developed in four other wells in the same maritime area.

Natural gas would be available on two sites: the Gharb basin and that of Essaouira (Meskala). In total, 150,000 m3 are exploited in the Gharb and delivered daily via pipelines to seven clients operating in the free zone and the industrial zone of Kenitra, as part of a partnership between ONHYM (25%) and the company SDX Energy (75%). Amina Benkhadra also said that the natural gas exploited in the Essaouira-Meskala region is largely sold and absorbed by certain energy needs of the National Phosphates Office in Youssoufia, and supplied through a 125 km pipeline.