Spain takes over from Algeria to supply Morocco with gas

The Spanish government announced on Thursday 3 February that it was going to help Morocco to “ensure its energy security” by allowing it to transport gas through the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), which Algeria has not been supplying since the end of October.

“Morocco has requested support to guarantee its energy security on the basis of [nos] commercial relations, and Spain has responded favorably to it, as it would have done for any partner or any neighbour”said the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition in a press release. “Morocco will be able to acquire liquefied natural gas (LNG) on international markets, have it delivered to a regasification plant in peninsular Spain and use the Maghreb gas pipeline (GME) to transport it to its territory”added the ministry, without giving more details on the timetable or the volumes of gas concerned.

Asked, the Moroccan ministry of energy did not want to provide details, in particular financial, on this agreement. According to the Moroccan site The360, Morocco had been in talks with Spain for several weeks to use LNG terminals in Spanish ports to transport gas to Morocco via the GME.

This agreement between Madrid and Rabat comes as Algeria decided at the end of October not to renew the contract of GME, which served Spain via Morocco, against the backdrop of strong diplomatic tensions with its neighbor. The two Maghreb countries oppose each other in particular on the thorny issue of Western Sahara, a vast desert territory 80% controlled by Rabat, but claimed by the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers. These tensions led Algeria to break diplomatic relations with Morocco at the end of August.

An LNG terminal project in Mohammedia

Algiers’ decision to close the GME tap deprived Rabat of Algerian gas, while, according to experts, Morocco covered 97% of its needs by directly taking gas transiting through its territory, as a right of way, and by buying it at a preferential rate from the Algerian giant Sonatrach.

By helping Morocco to supply itself with gas, Madrid is making a gesture towards Rabat at a time when their bilateral relations have been strained since the reception by Spain, in April 2021, of the leader of the Polisario Front for treatment there. The major diplomatic crisis triggered culminated in the arrival in mid-May of nearly 10,000 migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, thanks to a relaxation of controls by the Moroccan authorities.

Rabat also signed an agreement at the end of November with Sound Energy for this British company to supply it with gas from a field it operates in Tendrara, in eastern Morocco. Under the terms of this contract, Sound Energy undertakes to produce and deliver to the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (Onee) up to 350 million cubic meters of LNG per year, for ten years. . This gas will pass through the Moroccan part of the GME.

The Moroccan media have also reported on the project to build an LNG terminal in the port of Mohammedia, near Casablanca. Spain, for its part, continues to be supplied with gas by Algeria, its main supplier, via the Medgaz submarine gas pipeline, which directly connects the two countries and whose capacity will be increased to compensate for the stoppage of transit. through GME.