Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – With Morocco’s booming industrial complex driving energy demand up and providing a fertile ground for industry players in the energy sector, Daniel Gould, CEO of the London-based energy firm SDX, is keen to see his company play a greater role in the North African kingdom’s increasingly promising market.
In an interview with Morocco World News (MWN), Gould expressed his confidence in the burgeoning demand for energy in tandem with the country’s flourishing industries.
“Morocco, in the last decade in particular, has really shot up economically and exhibited fantastic growth opportunities. And so where there is economic growth, there is significant growth in demand for energy,” Gould said.
As more companies flock to the country’s industrial zones, “total primary energy demand … has been growing at double digits for well over a decade,” the SDX CEO reckoned.
KSR-21 well operated by SDX Energy
Morocco has been witnessing an industrial revolution since the 2000s, with manufacturing gradually moving towards complex components with high-added value.
The automotive industry became the country’s largest exporting sector in 2023, overtaking the phosphate industry. Other industries are equally gaining momentum, such as aeronautics which has been posing positive growth rates for the past decade.
SDX Energy, currently among the largest gas producers in the country, is looking to bank on the surge in demand for energy in Morocco. “I see a wealth of opportunity,” Gould said while discussing his company’s domestic operations.
In line with his belief in the country’s potential to host more business activities, Gould has made it his mandate’s goal to focus on Morocco.
In September 2023, SDX announced plans to divest its Egyptian assets in a bid to focus on its expansion efforts in Morocco. Shortly after, the company released a corporate strategy disclosing plans to transition its operations from pure oil & gas into hybrid energy in Morocco.
‘Doing more with what we have’
Beyond its future aspiration to hop on the emerging hydrogen production industry in Morocco, SDX has near-term plans to bolster its operations in Morocco, the CEO stressed.
Since taking the helm of the British company a year ago, Gould’s modus operandi has centered around the motto: “doing more with what we have,” which translated into a grounded strategy to scale the company’s operations in Morocco using current resources.
“We want to be not just in the business of drilling for gas, but we want to be in the business of delivering more gas exactly where Morocco needs it, in Kenitra and the Atlantic free zone,” he said elaborating on SDX’s strategy.
At the time of the interview, SDX’s operations in Morocco were gaining significant momentum, with the company holding a 75% working interest in a portfolio that includes the Sebou Central, Gharb Occidental, Moulay Bouchta Ouest, and Lalla Mimouna Sud exploration permits.
Detailing the company’s near-term strategy, the executive explained that his company looks to “double down on growing the amount of gas that we can transport through the pipeline that we operate and own.”
“I am keen to bridge the absence of developed transportation infrastructure with compressed natural gas trucking. So something we call the virtual pipeline. So a virtual pipeline essentially would see SDX and ONHYM flowing eight to ten times more natural gas through its existing network to Kenitra,” he continued.
Recognizing the need to strengthen its energy delivery infrastructure, the government signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate efforts between several national agencies. The agreement has notably paved the way for the construction of LNG (liquid natural gas) transport, storage, regasification, and trade infrastructure in the country.
Read Also: SDX Receives $3.5 Million in Sale Proceeds from Diverted Egyptian Asserts
As of May 2024, Morocco still relies on Spain to regasify imported LNG before the gas is transported to Morocco via the international gas pipeline Gazoduc Maghreb Europe (GME).
According to Gould, the SDX executive is seeking to become part of the gas importation business in Morocco. During his interview with MWN, the SDX chief executive revealed that his company is in discussions with the government to participate in the importation and transport of natural gas.
“Apart from producing more gas, we want to really spearhead the importation of more gas in order to satisfy the energy demand for electricity as well as industrial use,” he elaborated.
For the SDX CEO, pumping more energy into Morocco’s industrial complexes is key to attracting more investments and creating more jobs.
“The gas that we have provided, that is, we have drilled for and delivered to Kinetra, has brought in more than $1 billion in foreign direct investment in FDI,” Gould explained. “That’s because the companies that we supply gas to have built massive manufacturing plants because they know they can get gas.”
He concluded: “If there was no gas, the question is whether they would still be building that, building those facilities, and investing in Kenitra is a question mark. So well over a billion dollars of FDI and well over 4,000 direct jobs that those companies have created in the region.”
