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On August 24, 2021, Algeria officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Morocco after weeks of tension and escalation due to various disputes, some of which are historical borders, and others related to the latest political developments in the region, foremost of which is of course the agreement to normalize relations between Morocco and Israel, which Algeria considered it a direct threat to it.
This diplomatic step would not have passed without an impact on a number of areas of cooperation between the two countries, especially the field of energy, as this new rupture contributed to the termination of the Maghreb-European gas pipeline project that linked Algeria to Europe through the Kingdom of Morocco, which provided 97% of its internal needs. of gas from its share of this process, which guarantees Algeria in return a financial return, and guarantees Spain and Portugal an important share of their energy needs.
Diplomatic impact on energy
Since its inauguration, the Maghreb-European gas pipeline has constituted one of the main energy resources for the region, as it exits from Algeria to cross Morocco towards the Iberian Peninsula, where the amount of gas that reaches Spain provides 50% of its energy needs, which means that this gas pipeline was one of the lifelines for the countries of southern Europe.
But due to the diplomatic crisis that affected Moroccan-Algerian relations, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered not to renew the contract linking the Algerian “Sonatrach” company with the Moroccan Office for Electricity and Drinking Water, as the date of the end of the contract coincided with the beginning of the crisis between the two neighboring countries, but at the same time Algeria pledged This decision did not affect its energy commitments to Europe, relying on the "Medgas" line.
On the other hand, Morocco expressed its lack of concern about this Algerian decision, according to what was disclosed by the Moroccan Office of Electricity and Drinking Water, even though the Kingdom was providing 97% of its gas needs from this suspended project, half of this amount was in return for granting it rights Passing through its soil, while Rabat was buying the other half at preferential prices.
In light of these facts, Rabat began searching for new sources of energy, searching for a set of short-term, then medium and long-term solutions, that would suffice it from the gas of its eastern neighbor. As for urgent solutions, they would not have gone beyond importing fossil fuels (such as coal) or importing electricity directly from Europe, and for medium or long-term solutions, there is first an attempt to find gas resources inside Moroccan soil, or an attempt to import liquid gas that can be transported via ships from any country in the world, such as Nigeria, the United States, Russia and Qatar, but for the process to succeed, the Kingdom must be built. Storage stations for this liquefied gas, which are not currently available, as Moroccan officials were planning to equip them at the beginning of the year 2028, before politics played its game and scattered the bond papers, knowing that the cost of supplying liquefied gas remains high compared to importing natural gas through pipelines.
But despite the difficulty of the task, Morocco was able to sign a “surprising” agreement at the beginning of 2022 with its northern neighbor Spain, through which it benefits from gas through the Maghreb-European pipeline that has stopped working, where the gas will pass, but in the opposite direction, from Europe to Africa this time .
Teresa Ribera, the Spanish Minister of Environmental Transition, stated that the Kingdom of Morocco had requested assistance from Spain in order to ensure its energy security, confirming that her country had agreed to this request.
This agreement, which was announced by Madrid on February 3, confirmed the return of Moroccan-Spanish relations to their previous era after the great tension that marred them during the past year, as Teresa Ribera, the Spanish Minister of Environmental Transition, said that the Kingdom of Morocco requested assistance from Spain in order to Ensuring her energy security, stressing that her country agreed to this Moroccan request because it would have taken the same step towards any neighboring country or any strategic partner.
Speaking about the source of this gas, the Spanish minister added: “Morocco will buy liquefied gas from the global market before it reaches Spain, where we will work to restore it to its normal form before sending it to Morocco through the Maghreb-European pipeline,” she was satisfied with these data without entering into details regarding the timing. Or the amount you will get lace from this process.
This deal will provide Morocco's energy needs, even temporarily, while waiting for more sustainable and less costly solutions, and this is what Rabat is trying to work on in order to secure its energy security, and the most important of these solutions will undoubtedly be the discovery of gas fields inside Moroccan soil.
In October 2019, the magazine "John Afrique" published a report in which it talked about the exploration operations for energy resources launched by Morocco since the beginning of the new millennium in search of new resources. At the time, the Moroccan press celebrated this discovery, which was expected to pump 100 billion barrels of oil, before the wait ended with the bitter fact that the volume of oil does not exceed one billion barrels that are not usable at all.
The magazine concerned with African affairs added that Morocco learned a lot from this lesson, and began to deal very cautiously with these discoveries. Its volume is up to 2000 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas, but despite the importance of this discovery, Rabat has maintained its caution, especially since this area had previously been examined by the Spanish company "Repsol", which said that the process of extracting the previously discovered amount (less than the amount discovered). After that by the British company) is not profitable.
Last January, the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines announced the discovery of gas in the "Lixos" marine area off the city of Larache, while the studies that the area is undergoing have not yet determined the available gas quantities.
Amina Benkhadra, Director-General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines, said in press statements that drilling operations began in December of last year, reaching a depth of 2,512 meters at the end of the month, which confirmed the presence of natural gas in the Anchoa 2 well, adding that the operation of Gas production will start in 2024 if things go as Rabat hopes.
Three days after this first announcement, the British company came out to talk about "promising discoveries" of gas in the "Gercif" area in northeastern Morocco, adding in a statement that complementary tests are underway in order to confirm the discovered quantities.
However, despite this good news from the exploration areas, Rabat is looking for sustainable solutions capable of supplying it with its energy needs, as these quantities of gas discovered inside Moroccan soil will cover, at best, only limited areas of the Kingdom's territory.
A Nigerian alternative to the Maghreb project
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (right) and his counterpart Mohamed Bukhari.
In December 2016, during his visit to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, King Mohammed VI met with his counterpart Mohamed Bukhari, where the two parties agreed to launch a feasibility study in May 2017 in order to connect the two countries with a gas pipeline that starts from Nigeria and reaches Europe via Rabat.
Two years after this visit, and in June 2018, the two countries signed a joint declaration aimed at defining the steps for this huge project, which will extend over 5,660 km, and will pass through 10 African countries in addition to the two signatories to the agreement, which will make this new pipeline, according to The statement of Nasser Bourita, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, is one of the important energy solutions for the West African region, which includes regions that live without electricity.
The economic and environmental importance of this project, according to Francis Perrin, director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, is due to Nigeria giving him the opportunity to market its gas, which it produces during the oil production process. A market for this gas means that it must be burned, which causes a huge economic loss in addition to the impact on the environment.”
As for Morocco, the gain will be double. First, it will be able to secure its energy needs, and then it will definitely benefit from this economic partnership in redefining its relations with Nigeria, which was not always on its side with regard to major issues, especially the Sahara issue, which will allow Rabat A broader presence in the West African region, which is consistent with the Kingdom's new trends in focusing on the African dimension in its foreign relations, as seen during the recent period.
Nigeria's ambition to create energy and economic partnerships with North African countries will not stop at this point, but will go beyond the Moroccan borders to head a little east, and land in Algeria, which is also working on the trans-Saharan gas pipeline "Nigal" project in partnership with Abuja.
🔴 Nigerian Oil Minister Tembri Salva confirms to @CNBCArabia that the completion of the Nigerian-Algerian gas pipeline 🇳🇬🇩🇿 with the aim of transporting his country's gas to Algeria and from there to other countries according to joint agreements.@Energy_gov_dz pic.twitter.com/HAOmRdh5KJ
— Radio Algeria international Radio Algeria International (@radioalginter) September 21, 2021
The first signs of this project began in 2002 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Algeria and Nigeria, but this project was delayed in launching, not because of the lack of funding sources for this project, which will cost about $20 billion, but because of the difficulty of finding a market capable of absorbing 30 billion cubic meters of Nigerian gas, the difficulty of finding markets to sell this gas has increased after a number of strong competitors entered the market, led by the United States of America thanks to the technology of converting shale gas, without forgetting Russia, which supplies Europe with its gas at competitive prices, although the recent transformations in the gas market do not serve this The project, which aims mainly to export energy to foreign markets, the two countries confirmed their quest to implement the project as soon as possible, as the Director General of Sonatrach confirmed last September the completion of technical studies for the project, adding: "But the economic feasibility remains related to demand, supply and prices."This came a few days before the Nigerian Energy Minister, Temebri Silva, confirmed that his country had started building a gas pipeline passing through Algeria to Europe.
The importance of this project for Nigeria comes as it will pay traffic fees only to two countries, namely Niger and Algeria. On the other hand, Algeria’s self-sufficiency in gas will increase the amount that the country can export, without forgetting that Algeria has a network of pipelines heading towards Europe, which means reducing the cost and shortening The duration of the completion of this power line, as well as its possession of gas liquefaction stations, to be exported to distant markets in Far Asia.
For Nigeria, this project will not be a competitor to its project with Morocco, but Abuja sees the two projects as an integration in the interest of its project to export its natural gas, and this was confirmed by Tembri Silva on the sidelines of his participation in the Gastec Conference, which was held recently in Dubai, UAE, as he commented on news The exclusion of one of the two projects in favor of the second: “We can complete the two projects in parallel. The gas that will pass through Morocco will be transported to Europe, while we will direct the gas that will reach Algeria to African countries,” which was explained by observers of Nigeria’s desire to benefit from the late golden era of this energy source, In the presence of other types, renewable energy resources began to appear.
Europe always benefits
Europe is closely watching the development of African gas projects, as the old continent has been seeking for years to diversify its energy sources instead of relying on Russia, which is preparing for war with Europe at the present time due to the recent Ukrainian crisis.
Earlier, Europe started dealing with Azerbaijan and developed its partnership with both the United States of America and Qatar, and then it aspires to include African suppliers in its list of gas suppliers.
On the other hand, Russia, which does not like much that its competitors increase the European market for fear of giving up its natural resources, is watching all these developments to work to protect its economic interests, but this cold energy war may have come to an end with the beginning of the confrontations on the Ukrainian arena, where Europe and the states The United States of America played the economic sanctions card, as Germany announced the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was connecting Germany to Russia via Hungary, a few hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Europe to cut off this vital energy artery that allows Moscow to export its surplus gas. .
These political problems will undoubtedly favor African projects if the situation develops and Europe boycotts Russia's natural resources. It is true that the quantities that Africa, led by Nigeria, exports, will not cover all of Europe's energy needs, but this crisis will at least allow it to sell all the quantities that it will be able to Extracting it after it did not find open markets for its export until recently, which means greater opportunities for this region to benefit from energy revenues that undoubtedly contribute to the attempt to develop West Africa.