Absence Of Options To Compel Rabat To Renew Contracts To Import Algerian Gas

Morocco is reportedly bracing to renew contracts for the import of Algerian natural gas through the gas pipeline “Maghreb Europe”, which goes through Spain, as part of an agreement with Algeria starting from the year 2021, in the absence of options before the Moroccan Government and in view of the lack of local production which fails to fulfill the growing demand by the Moroccan economy for natural gas.
It turned out over the past few months that the widely-publicized gas pipeline project linking Nigeria to Morocco has been dubbed as just “political marketing” with no substance.
Algerian Energy Minister Mr. Mustapha Guitouni said that “the two sides had reached a preliminary agreement to extend Moroccan gas import contracts”, according to Moroccan media outlets.
Minister Mustapha Guitouni was quoted as saying in Rabat that Morocco will take over the ownership of the gas pipeline between Algeria and Spain passing through its territory as of 2021, the date of the end of the current decade.
According to Mr. Guitouni, future meetings between the Algerian and Moroccan sides are scheduled soon to determine the details of the new contract, in terms of price and quantities, considering that the current contract provides for annual operations.
Through these new developments, it is clear that Algeria will negotiate with Morocco the price of gas exports from the position of strength , given that by the start of 2021, the supply of Algerian gas to Spain will be almost entirely guaranteed through the gas pipeline “Medgaz” directly between Beni Saf in western Algeria and Almeria in southern Spain, thus supplying Spain via the gas pipeline passing through Morocco.
By the end of 2020, the “Medgaz” gas pipeline project from the Arisha area at Tulsman, 200 kilometers away, will have been delivered and will bring additional gas capacity from the pipeline to Spain through Morocco, with a capacity of 4.5 billion cubic meters per year, to be pumped via the “Medgaz” and funneled directly to Spain .
For years, Moroccan media and even government officials talked about the Abuja (Nigeria) gas pipeline towards Casablanca, but the economic data on the ground made this project seem to be against nature in view of the myriad difficulties of its implementation and the insufficient feasibility.
A few days ago, the CEO of Sonatrach Group, Mr. Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, confirmed that it’s not in Algeria’s interest to halt the supply of natural gas to Morocco, but rather its interest, he stressed, lies in keeping with the use of the pipeline and raising the gas quantities exported through it.