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Rabat – Several reports have expressed concerns about North African energy companies’ involvement in mixing Russian oil with other energy products for re-exporting.
As it grapples with Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been resorting to diversifying its partnership within Africa.
According to many reports, the Russian government had been increasing its energy supplies to Morocco prior to the wave of Western sanctions on Russian energy products.
But the EU ban on Russian oil products appears to have created a new market of exporting back to Europe Russian products via third countries, the Wall Street Journal reported on January 25, stressing that concerns have been raised about Russian oil cargoes “being blended with other oil products and re-exported.”
“That process disguises the ultimate origin of the products and complicates Western efforts to remove Russian fossil fuels from their economies,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
Moroccan energy companies’ forgery of import documentation to make vast profits
A Moroccan MP raised similar concerns late last month, denouncing what he described as Moroccan energy companies’ manipulation of the origins of the products being sold on the Moroccan fuel market.
In a question he addressed to the Ministry of Economy, Abdelkader Taher, a member of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), called on the government to open an investigation into the situation, accusing some companies of forging import documentation, including receipts.
While they import Russian gas that is 70% cheaper compared to products from other countries, Taher argued, some of the Moroccan companies involved in this “manipulation” scheme forge import documents to make it look as if their products are being imported from GCC countries or the US. In doing so, the MP explained, the companies can then sell their energy goods at much higher prices to make “staggering revenues.”
“All of this happens with the explicit complicity of the company managing the fuel depot in the port of Tanger Med, away from any monitoring of the state financial apparatus,” the MP said, urging the Ministry of Economy to open an investigation to determine t and detect the source of fuel imports and their prices.
Monopoly and market dysfunctions
The news comes as Moroccans across the country continue to denounce soaring prices of basic goods, particularly fuel.
Over the past weeks, low-income Moroccans have repeatedly condemned the government’s unresponsiveness and perceived lack of willingness to take action by implementing measures that could address the worsening situation, especially amid the recent release of several reports proving the existence of “dysfunctions and manipulations” in the Moroccan energy market.
Earlier this year, Morocco’s Government Work Observatory released a report that unequivocally slammed the government for its “refusal to address the problem of monopoly” in the hydrocarbons market.
In particular, the Observatory denounced the government’s dismissal of clear warnings from the Competition Council, which in a recent study clearly emphasized that the Moroccan fuel market is subdued by a network of overbearing companies that have created a monopoly.
