Oil and gas exploration in Morocco attracts investments of nearly 30 billion dirhams

On Mar 4, 2023

The Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development revealed that investments in oil and gas exploration in Morocco reached a total of 29.4 billion dirhams between 2000 and 2022, 96% of which were financed by foreign partners.

Responding to a parliamentary question from the Justice and Development parliamentary group on the “outcome of oil and gas exploration”, the ministry noted that Morocco, through the National Bureau of Hydrocarbons and Minerals, is making great efforts to attract investors and competent foreign companies to develop the oil and gas potential, and thus discover these resources, which Morocco desperately needs to reduce the costs of the energy bill of our country.

The ministry explained that gas was discovered in the West, in Essaouira, as well as on the coast of Larache at the beginning of 2022, and that the efforts made by the office and its partners in gas exploration have led to the discovery of gas reservoirs produced in the Western basin, which, despite its small size, is important and profitable from an economic point of view, thanks to the presence of an important network of gas pipelines, connecting these reservoirs to the factories located in the region of Kenitra, which are supplied by this gas.

They also pointed out that for the Essaouira basin, the production of gas and condensates started from this basin since the 80s of the last century, and the production is still going on with the “maskala” concession permit, noting that the gas produced in this basin is transported to the OCP mining centre in Youssoufia, to meet the energy needs of the phosphate drying and calcination units, and the condensates are sold to the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water.

Regarding Tendrara area, the ministry pointed out that the company “Sound Energy” drilled exploration wells, and based on the investigation, processing and extrapolation of three-dimensional seismic data, two of them confirmed the presence of natural gas, stressing that based on these encouraging results, the exploitation concession was granted to Tendrara in August 2018 to develop the gas reservoir and the production of this discovery will start through two stages.

They added that the first phase depends on the implementation of a small LNG project, and in the second phase, the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water will be supplied with gas via the Maghreb-Europe GME gas pipeline, after the realisation of a 120 km pipeline project connecting the field and the Maghreb-Europe GME gas pipeline

As for the marine area of Larache, the National Bureau of Hydrocarbons and Minerals and its partner chariot, after carrying out geological and geophysical studies, drilled an exploration well in the width of the coast of Larache, between the period of mid-December 2021 to mid-January of the current year 2022, where the results of the drilling process and the subsequent extraction of preliminary data showed the presence of gas potential in this area.

The office is also conducting geological and geophysical studies to assess its own capacities in the Tangier-Tarfaya-Tarfaya-Lagouira Atlantic Sea and Mediterranean Sea sections, as well as in the Errachidia Laayoune-Boujdour and Assa-Zag land areas.