Morocco is finalizing the final steps for the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the international market, Energy Transition Minister Leïla Benali said on Friday. This is the first time the kingdom has purchased LNG.
Since the closure on October 31 of the Maghreb Europe (GME) gas pipeline which supplied Spain and Portugal with Algerian gas and which crossed Morocco, the kingdom has worked in recent months to prepare its entry into the international LNG market, a first .
“Morocco is already for the first time on the international gas market. The Moroccan teams found themselves face to face with experienced traders and managed to develop a negotiation capacity that did not exist before”, declared the minister in a press conference recalling that Morocco has never bought LNG before.
Leila Benali had already announced earlier at the Energy conference that Morocco would join the international LNG market during the month of Ramadan.
“This Ramadan, Morocco will access the international LNG (liquefied natural gas, editor’s note) market for the first time,” she said.
“We will not prepare one, not two, but up to four ports to receive LNG. I don’t see why we wouldn’t take advantage of our 3,500 kilometers of coastline”, she explained, and to continue that the objective is to build a gas storage and transport system to connect the source to the areas. of consumption.
This gas purchased on the international market should revive the two power plants of Tahaddart and Ain Beni Mathar, which both contribute nearly 10% of the electricity consumed in the country, continued the minister.
The gas should be sent to Spain for its regasification before being sent back to Morocco via the GME in the opposite direction in the form of gas.
She also indicated that Morocco will not import gas from Spain or the European market. This declaration comes at a time when Algeria, which has unilaterally severed its diplomatic relations with Morocco, is blackmailing its European partners by telling them that its only condition for sending them gas is that it not be bought by Morocco.
For Leila Benali, the closure of this gas pipeline was seen as “an opportunity” for Morocco which allowed it to accelerate its energy transition strategy and advance the roadmap for the development of natural gas in the country.
To date, Morocco has received no less than a dozen medium-term contract proposals following its call for tenders launched by the government. The results of these proposals will be known in the coming days after examination by an ad hoc commission, assured the minister.
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