Managem Group has announced the acquisition of 100 percent of the capital of Sound Energy Meridja Limited (SEML), a subsidiary of Sound Energy Plc holding a 20 percent interest in the Tendrara gas concession in Morocco’s Oriental region. The transaction brings Managem’s total participation in the Tendrara project to 75 percent — held through its subsidiaries Mana Energy and Sound Energy Meridja Limited — with the remaining 25 percent continuing to be held by ONHYM. The operation is subject to regulatory approval.
The acquisition is positioned within Managem’s low-carbon energy strategy, which identifies natural gas as a transitional energy vector essential for supporting Morocco’s industrial growth and reducing the Kingdom’s dependence on hydrocarbon imports. The group frames the move as reinforcing the competitiveness of domestic industrial operators by securing long-term, competitively priced energy inputs — a dimension that has become increasingly strategic as global energy markets remain volatile and Morocco advances its broader energy sovereignty program.
Tendrara’s development plan is structured in two sequential phases. The first, currently in commissioning, involves the establishment of a natural gas liquefaction and storage facility targeting a production capacity of 100 million cubic meters per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the domestic market, with operations expected to commence from late 2026. The concession covers a 133.5 square kilometer exploitation perimeter in the Oriental region, granted for a 25-year period from 2018, with proven reserves estimated at 10.67 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The second phase — currently under feasibility study — envisages a gas processing installation and a connection pipeline to the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline, targeting a production capacity of 280 million cubic meters of natural gas per year for both domestic supply and European export. This phase would integrate Tendrara into the broader Moroccan gas infrastructure network taking shape around Nador West Med and the Atlantic African Gas Pipeline, creating a coherent national gas ecosystem from production through to distribution and export.
Managem’s gas expansion is one pillar of its 2026-2030 strategic cycle, alongside gold and critical minerals, which succeeded a 2020-2025 cycle that the group described as closed on record financial and industrial performance. The Tendrara consolidation reflects a deliberate convergence between Morocco’s mining-industrial complex and its energy transition architecture — one where a mining group with operational presence across Africa is simultaneously building the energy production capacity to serve the industrial base it supports.
