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Rabat – Morocco is stepping up efforts to strengthen and diversify its gas resources as the country aims to develop the first phase of a liquefied natural gas terminal near the eastern city of Nador.
Minister of Energy Leila Benali announced Morocco’s determination to start an action plan, expressing interest in launching a tender to develop the first phase of the natural gas terminal in Nador.
She made her remarks in a parliament session on Monday, noting that this tender to express interest in developing the process’s first phase will take place this week.
Known for its renewable energy assets, Morocco has been setting ambitious goals aiming to enable the country to diversify energy sources away from coal.
The North African country aims to supply its energy demands through renewable energy. Morocco’s goal is to achieve at least 52% of installed energy capacity from renewable energy by 2030.
Reports indicate that this capacity has now reached 45%.
The Moroccan minister stressed that the new terminal is set to connect to a gas pipeline that the country uses to import gas from Spanish infrastructure.
The infrastructure will serve several industrial zones, the minister said.
“The new infrastructure will be a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) located in the currently under-construction deepwater Nador West Med port,” Reuters said, noting that it has offered the same information in May last year – citing an official from Benali’s ministry.
In January, reports indicated that Morocco is poised to join the liquified natural gas production market for the first time in its history by the end of this year.
British company Sound Energy said it is nearing completion of a gas liquefaction facility at the Tendrara field in eastern Morocco.
Sound Energy CEO Graham Lyon said that production trials are set to kick off next summer, with commercial production starting at a daily 10 million cubic feet by late autumn.
Production capacity is expected to eventually increase to 40 million cubic feet a day as additional fields are developed, reports said.
Lyon stressed the country’s assets in different interviews, including in February, where he reaffirmed his company’s growing interest in Morocco’s gas industry.
He echoed the same remarks in an interview published on February 9 by the energy-focused website Attaqa, where he said that “gas reserves are technically classified according to one of many international standards and the undiscovered potential not reserves in eastern Morocco exceed 20 trillion cubic feet of gas in place.”
