Morocco Revives $4.6 bln LNG Import Plan

Morocco has launched a national plan to boost imports of liquefied natural gas (LNGLF) (LNG), including the construction of a terminal at the industrial hub of Jorf Lasfar, worth up to $4.6 billion, its energy minister said on Tuesday.

The idea to build a LNG terminal was announced a few years ago but the government has given no reasons for the delay.

Jorf Lasfar is an industrial hub on the Atlantic coast near El Jadida city where, among others, the state-run phosphate company OCP and Abu Dhabi's TAQA have facilities.

Morocco, a net energy importer, aims to diversify energy supplies and reduce dependence on oil and coal imports. It is also developing a plan to build 4 gigawatts of renewable energy.

The plan will allow Morocco to import up to 7 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas by 2025, the minister said. It includes a jetty, terminal and pipelines, with estimated investments of $600 million, $800 million and $600 million respectively.

It is also planning a regasification unit in Jorf Lasfar port, while Morocco's state power utility ONEE wants to build four gas-fired power plants of 600 MW of each in the same area and near the northern city of Tangier.

Pipelines will also feed up industries in Jorf Lasfar and the most developed regions, Casablanca and Tangier.

"All the projects will be awarded via international tenders in total transparency," Abdelkader Amara, Moroccan energy minister told reporters.

"The first step in early 2015 will be negotiations of supplies with gas exporters to get the best deals. If they fail (negotiations), we will launch tenders directly in the international markets," the minister added.

The North African kingdom is already burning 1 bcm of gas, including around 70 million produced locally, but gas is still hovering at only 5 percent of the country's energy bill.

It still has a 10-year contract signed in 2011 with Algeria's Sonatrach to import 640 mcm of gas through the Algerian pipeline exporting to Spain and passing by the north of the country. Morocco also gets royalties for the same pipeline and for the same period.

It is unclear if Morocco and Algeria would renegotiate the gas deal in 2021 as the two have many disputes, mainly over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, most of which Morocco annexed in 1975. Algeria supports and hosts the Western Saharan independence movement Polis, a stance that angers Morocco. (Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi