Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Mohamed Elkorri
Published on 2024-03-10 20:40:00
In January, Spain exported to Morocco, through the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), 868 gigawatt hours (GWh) of natural gas equivalent from Spanish facilities, representing more than 28% of all exports for the month.
Morocco is the main destination for gas resale, due to the decrease in shipments to France, Portugal, and Italy, which are usually at the top of the list of destination countries.
Over the past year, gas re-exports from Spain to Morocco have exceeded 9,800 GWh, making Morocco the second destination for gas shipments from Spanish facilities, after France.
The maximum gas export capacity of the pipeline from Tarifa is 960 GWh per month, and over the past year and a half, there have been several months where over 90% of this maximum pumping capacity was utilized. Even in August last year, the maximum was reached with the shipment of 958 GWh to Morocco, according to combined data from Cores and Enagás, the manager of the Spanish gas system and pipeline network.
It should be noted that Spain does not sell gas to Morocco. Spain’s role is limited to receiving ships containing gas purchased by Rabat from any supplying country at its regasification plants and sending it to Morocco through the Tarifa gas pipeline (Cadiz). All gas re-exported from Spain to Morocco is subject to a certificate and origin control to ensure it does not contain any molecules from Algeria, as required by the Algerian government.
It is also worth noting that in 2022, Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of industrial gas and fuels to Morocco with approximately 33.8 billion dirhams, representing about 44% of total imports of these materials. Spain ranks second among countries on which Morocco relies for importing gasoline and industrial fuel. It is followed by Russia and Italy in fourth position. Butane gas ranks second among the most important energy product imports for the Kingdom, with a value of 26.3 billion dirhams, representing an increase of approximately 81.2% on an annual basis.
For butane gas imports, Morocco relied on the United States for a value of 18.8 billion dirhams, meeting 71.7% of its needs. The Kingdom also imported butane gas from Spain for 12.3% and from the United Kingdom in third position, and France in fourth position.
Read the original article(French) on L’Opinion
