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Will the Africa Atlantic gas pipeline project (between Morocco and Nigeria) emerge as an alternative in the medium and long term?

It is not impossible, but it is not an option that can be taken for granted. This is the reason why you need several options and not just one, as explained above. Some options depend only on Morocco while this gas pipeline project between Nigeria and Morocco involves the agreement and commitment of many other countries in West and North-West Africa, which is more complex and longer. . It will also be necessary to find the markets and the financing required for this very ambitious project. Morocco therefore needs to both find concrete answers to the problem generated by the shutdown of the GME and continue its efforts to promote the Nigeria / Morocco gas pipeline project, but the latter project is not necessarily the solution to the first problem.
Algeria exports less and less gas to Spain (Spain imported 60-65% of its natural gas from Algeria but these shares have fallen to 30-35% and now imports more from the United States) . Would Spain still risk a gas shortage if the only gas pipeline that now links it to Algeria breaks down?
We can of course never totally exclude the hypothesis of a failure on the Medgaz gas pipeline (Algeria / Mediterranean / Spain) but we can see that major technical problems on gas pipelines around the world are very rare. Sometimes there are attacks and sabotage, which is different. Problems causing gas deliveries to stop are often fixed quite quickly when they occur, but it is always useful for an importing country to anticipate this type of scenario. There would be three main ways for Spain to deal with this: importing LNG from Algeria (this country has four LNG complexes on its Mediterranean coast); import natural gas from other suppliers, in particular in the form of LNG (the LNG sector offers much more flexibility than the gas pipeline); and / or tap into its gas stocks.
The Big think is we have the Gas in place and own 75% of the resource, anyone for a Farm out. The deals are close!

GME put back at the center of the news
The recent breakdown in diplomatic relations between Algeria and Morocco has brought to the fore a major gas project, the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), which has not been talked about much for quite a while.

In “Questions to an expert”, Francis Perrin, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS), delivers his analysis.
The interruption of an energy source, in this example natural gas, is always a risk. But the two key topics on this point are the magnitude of this risk (low, significant, very important, critical) and the options available to the affected country to limit the negative impacts of this risk. When these two criteria are combined, we come to the conclusion that this problem is manageable for Morocco.

In August, Algeria broke its diplomatic relations with Morocco, with the expiry of the gas pipeline contract at the end of October, what were the forecasting mechanisms that the country put in place from then on?

As you point out, the risk of shutdown of the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME) was foreseeable since the summer with the severance of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Algeria at the initiative of Algiers. This is important because it is obviously more difficult to deal with a totally unforeseen situation (it happens) than it is to be able to prepare for several weeks. From the diplomatic breakdown in the summer of 2021, we knew that there was a high probability that the GME would not survive this crisis, but the gas contracts were fortunately valid until October 31, 2021.
In the short term, Morocco can count on its existing electricity stock, with an increasing role of renewable energies, and on the import of fossil fuels and electricity if necessary. In the medium to long term, options include further development of capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources and the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by ship. In addition, Morocco intends not to drop the GME, as shown by the agreement concluded on November 30 between ONEE (National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water) and Sound Energy, which relates to the sale of 300-350 million cubic meters per year of gas that will be produced on the Tendrara concession (Phase 2) in Morocco. The agreement provides for gas sales over 10 years and this gas will be transported using the Moroccan section of the GME. Onhym (National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines) is a partner of Sound Energy.

The Moroccan subsoil is rich in natural gas
Several international companies specializing in oil and gas exploration confirm that the Moroccan subsoil is rich in natural gas. This is evidenced by the discovery of Sound Energy, the most important ever made in Morocco.
Morocco attracts international companies specializing in gas exploration because of its potential in hydrocarbons in general (gas and oil). According to Abdellah Mouttaqi, Secretary General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), the geological and geophysical assessment studies carried out over the past decades have made it possible to certify that "Morocco has several sedimentary basins in onshore and offshore, the geology of which has allowed the genesis of various petroleum systems that could potentially be favorable to the accumulation of gas deposits ”.
In an interview with Challenge, the official said that the Moroccan authorities have also created the conditions to attract investors to the sector. The Moroccan state offers several advantages to oil companies, in particular a 10-year exemption on corporation tax as well as several tax exemptions (VAT, professional tax, etc.) and attractive rates for the concession right and rent. superficial, he specifies.
Abdellah Mouttaqi also exposed the areas in development and production. This is the Gharb basin where productive gas fields have been discovered. Fields which, despite their small size, "are economically interesting and profitable thanks to the existence, on site, of a large gas pipeline network, as well as the proximity of several industries in the province of Kénitra", explains. he, adding that these gas fields are already put into production and directly connected to the existing pipeline network and separation stations.
Two of the exploration wells completed between 2016 and 2018 by Sound Energy in the Tendrara region also confirmed the presence of natural gas. This field will be put into production very soon, assures the SG of ONHYM who announced the recent signing with ONEE of a gas delivery contract via the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME) after the construction of a 120 km ramp.
https://www.bladi.net/maroc-exploration-gaziere,88855.html

If the objective of the Algerian regime was, by deciding not to renew the contract relating to Maghreb-Europe, to leave Morocco without gas and therefore to suffocate it economically, it is because it underestimated the meaning of the Moroccan responsiveness.

Maghreb-Europe will not have been out of service for long. Abandoned on November 1, 2021 by Algeria, which no longer wished to use it to supply Spain with gas, this gas pipeline which runs from the eastern neighbor to the northern one via Morocco will be upgraded. profit by the Kingdom for the exploitation of gas resources of Grand Tendrara, an area of ??approximately 14,500 km2 in the Oriental region, on the Moroccan-Algerian border, for which the British company Sound Energy had obtained a permit in 2018 .

The latter thus signed, on November 30, 2021, an agreement with the National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), under which it will be delivered up to 350 million meters. cubic meters of gas per year over the next ten years, with an assured minimum threshold of 300 million cubic meters (otherwise Sound Energy would pay a penalty, under the “take-or-pay” clause of the said agreement).

Cubic meters which, once out of the earth, will therefore transit through Maghreb-Europe, in order, from there, to supply the rest of Morocco. The return to service of the gas pipeline is also in addition to a first contract signed on July 30, 2021 by Sound Energy with Afriquia Gaz, the gas subsidiary of the national holding company Akwa Group (owned, incidentally, by the Head of Government, Aziz Akhannouch).

Also covering the Grand Tendrara area, the contract will consist of the annual marketing of 100 million cubic meters of gas that Afriquia Gaz will be responsible for distributing, in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), to its various customers (specifically, the gas will be liquefied within an infrastructure which should be built by the Italian company Italfluid Geoenergy, with which Sound Energy has been in discussions since the end of December 2020, while to use it, customers will proceed to regasify it downstream).

And when it comes to LNG, we can recall that Morocco launched, on March 23, 2021, a call for expressions of interest for the design and implementation of a maritime solution for the supply of natural gas to the market. national by a floating storage and regasification unit.

Call for tenders which had aroused so much interest - in particular that of the Chinese construction giant, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) - that the supervisory ministry, namely that of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, had postponed the deadline ten day finale. This means that from 2025, Morocco will be able to provide 1.1 billion cubic meters of its gas needs via the future unit, while in the meantime, we already know that Maghreb-Europe can also be used to transport regasified LNG. from Spain, as part of the “reverse flow” strategy advocated for ex

Now, according to Medias 24 - close to the Moroccan authorities - the parties have to agree - 90 days from the signing - on the conditions of the sale agreement. The executive president of Sound Energy, Graham Lyon, asserted that he has initiated conversations with potential partners who have expressed a "solid interest" in participating in the project, as recently reported by the digital newspaper El energy newspaper.
For now, Rabat hopes with the gas from Tendrara to meet the needs of the two power plants -participated by Endesa- that run on this fuel: Tahaddart, located between Asilah and Tangier, and Ain Beni Mathar, located next to the Algerian border and to the layout of the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline.

Morocco sets its sights on Nigerian gas

But Morocco needs to continue looking for alternatives to the gas that until last October 31 came from Algeria, which met most of its needs for this hydrocarbon. The Moroccan authorities have been targeting Nigerian reserves for years. The Moroccan digital Bladi reported that the Moroccan authorities are already working on the development of the future Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, through which Rabat not only has to satisfy national needs but also to supply the European market. For now, the heavy investment required continues to delay the development of the project. According to experts, Moroccan energy needs, which are trending upward, will be around 5,000 million cubic meters per year by 2025
In the long term, Morocco is confident that it will be able to exploit the existing gas fields in its territory and continue to promote renewable energies - the country's potential is out of the question - to reduce dependence on other sources and markets.
However, on the eve of winter, the Moroccan authorities continue to display their traditional opacity on the gas problem. Many are the doubts about the plans of the Government of Akhannouch to solve the gas ballot. One of the main weeklies in the country, Maroc Hebdo, asked the question last month: “The energy mix does not provide an answer to the question about how Morocco will ensure its natural gas needs for electricity production in the coming weeks. . Why is nothing reported about the ongoing negotiations? "

https://www.niusdiario.es/internacional/africa/marruecos-resucita-gaseoducto_18_3246871721.html

Morocco resurrects the gas pipeline that carried fuel to Spain and closed Algeria
The contract signed between the British Sound Energy and the Moroccan National Electricity Office will allow the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline to receive 350 million cubic meters of gas from the Moroccan Tendrara field
The project will bring the combined cycle power plants of Ain Beni Mathar and Tahaddart, which represent up to 17% of the national electricity production in Morocco, to work again after the closure of the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline.
After a month since, fulfilling its threat, Algeria closed the Maghreb-Europe, Morocco has revived the gas pipeline that transported gas to Spain through its territory. The plan is to build a liquefied natural gas plant in the Tendrara field, in eastern Morocco and near the Algerian border, and transfer it to the aforementioned pipeline. The intention of Rabat is that, in a first phase, the gas satisfies domestic needs, but, in a later stage, it travels from the Maghreb Europe to the other side of the Strait. And it will do so with the competition of the British firm Sound Energy, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Announced on November 30, the agreement signed with the Moroccan National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) will commit Sound Energy to produce, process and deliver up to 350 million cubic meters of natural gas per year. The British company is the concessionaire, together with the Moroccan State, of the aforementioned operation -Tendrara JV- located in eastern Morocco. The agreement is added to the one for the sale of liquefied natural gas for ten years that Sound Energy had signed with the Moroccan Afriquia Gaz in July. The company, listed in Morocco, belongs to the Awka Group, whose main shareholder is none other than Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.
The hydrocarbon will therefore travel through the Maghreb Europe section located in Moroccan territory, an infrastructure that has become the property of the State once the Maghreb Europe contract expired, for which, we remember, around 8,000 million spent annually cubic meters of natural gas.

As detailed by the Moroccan media Medias 24, the agreement has been signed at the expense of granting the necessary authorizations and permits - which will have to come from the Moroccan Ministries of Economy and Finance and of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development - for the construction of facilities of gas, the final approval of the investment by the partners of Tendrara JV and the execution of the interconnection between the aforementioned field and the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline. As El Economista recalled, the Spanish companies Enagás and Elecnor have participated since 2018 in the pipeline project that will eventually connect the Tendrara field.

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