Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, told parliament that “Morocco aspires to raise the level of its energy reserves and secure the needs of the national market.”
She added that the Kingdom aspires to use private companies within the framework of the public-private partnership, to increase the overall storage capacity.
The prices of gasoline and gasoline (gas oil) in Morocco witnessed successive, unprecedented rises, as the government attributes the reasons for the rises to the international situation, especially the war between Ukraine and Russia, while Moroccan analysts believe that these rises could have been mitigated if Morocco had maintained the only oil refinery in the country. (Samir), instead of importing all its needs of refined petroleum products from abroad.
(Samir) closed its doors in 2015, the same year in which the state also lifted subsidies on the hydrocarbon sector, with the exception of butane gas.
Voices are rising in Morocco to restart the refinery to save the sector from the huge rise in fuel prices.
The file (Samir) is in the hands of the international judiciary, after a legal dispute with its former owner, Saudi businessman Muhammad Hussein Al-Amoudi.
On the other hand, Benali said that the interruption of Algerian gas to Morocco due to the non-renewal of the Maghreb-European gas pipeline “did not affect the electricity production in the Kingdom … and did not cause any shortage or deficit in the level of meeting Morocco’s reserves of electricity.”
She added that Morocco has succeeded in “accessing” the global market for liquefied gas and has received dozens of offers from international companies, which have been studied by a special committee, and will sign the first contract this week.
She said that Morocco has developed an urgent plan to meet its electricity needs, which require half a billion cubic meters of natural gas annually in the short term.
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