This is a passage that some have qualified as successful for Leila Benali, Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, during her presentation of the draft sub-budget of her ministry on Monday evening, before the members of the Commission of infrastructure, energy, minerals and environment in the House of Representatives.
The department she oversees, she will say, will endeavor to keep pace with the implementation of projects programmed by the private sector as regards the storage of petroleum products. And a ! The Minister thus hopes, thanks to the latter, to achieve a total additional storage capacity for petroleum products amounting to 904,000 cubic meters for a financial investment of around 3 billion dirhams by 2023. already achieved at the level of fuel distribution, Benali revealed that “until October 2021, the establishment of 224 service stations was authorized, with a financial investment of nearly 670 million dirhams and the creation of a thousand jobs.
On the other hand, a call for tenders was also launched to find out about the international players wishing to carry out the project for a floating natural gas storage and conversion unit. The government official explained that the importance of this project has aroused the interest of a large number of national and international companies. She further affirmed, that in order to ensure more, from the vision of the next stages of the development of this project, the ministry granted to the companies an additional time allowing them to answer a request for additional information relating to the project. project and details of the financing structure, as well as the terms of the gas supply contract. Leila Benali indicated that her ministry will communicate with companies that have expressed their interest in order to improve the offers and present a supply model that will secure the country’s natural gas supply under the best conditions. It must also be said that the establishment of this floating unit will make it possible to meet all of Morocco’s natural gas needs, which should reach more than 3 billion cubic meters per year by 2040, she added. .
On the other hand, Leila Benali stressed that the ministry is seeking to adopt a new approach to improve energy efficiency, as it will take new investment projects to comply with the principles of energy efficiency and incorporate the obligation to comply with the energy efficiency at the level of public authorities. In addition, it continued spending and programs benefiting from state support, and the jobs related to efficiency will be structured and developed. The minister underlined that there are 80 measures which have been identified which will make it possible to achieve savings in energy consumption estimated at around 20% by 2030. The ministry will also endeavor to support local communities and groups. , by concluding partnership agreements to develop energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies. The development of several capacity programs in the field of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies being taken into account.
Benali said that the field of oil and gas exploration, has various licenses, including 9 operating licenses and 53 research licenses, including 26 in the maritime field, to which are added up to 3 licenses, emphasizing that in the last three years and several gas wells have been discovered in the western region and in the Tendrara region as well as off the coast of the town of Larache. The international expert in the field of energies also indicated that the Kingdom is determined to achieve energy sovereignty, in accordance with the objectives of the national energy renewal strategy in order to exceed the current capacity of 52% of the national electricity mix, which would make it possible to cover 100% by 2030. Regarding the shutdown of the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME) Leila Benali, specified that during these last days, the electricity supply has continued to be ensured in a normal way and that for the moment no impact with regard to the 12% taken from the transit of Algerian gas.
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