Morocco’s $4.5 Bln LNG Project: 80 International Groups Interested

Some 80 international groups are interested in Morocco’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project worth $4.5 billion, Moroccan Energy Minister Aziz Rabbah said on Monday.

In his opening address at the 11th Arab Energy Conference held in Marrakech (1-4 Oct.2018), Rabbah said his department is putting final touches to the international tenders to be launched shortly for this mega-energy project to be carried in Jorf Lasfar, near the Atlantic coastal city of Al Jadida.

The Moroccan LNG project is part of efforts to diversify the country’s energy mix and autonomy. The project includes two new combined-cycle gas turbine power plants, each with a capacity of 1200 MW, an LNG terminal and onshore regasification unit at the Port of Jorf Lasfar as well as pipelines connecting the terminal to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline.

The gas terminal will have a storage capacity of 5 billion cubic meters of LNG per year, a fitted marine jetty, regasification plants and high-pressure gas transmission pipes.

Morocco, which imports most of its energy needs, seeks to reduce its dependency on imported fossil fuels, with plans aimed at bringing the share of LNG to 13 pc of its energy mix by 2025 and generating over 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030.