Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition presented a draft budget on Wednesday in the Lower House revising Morocco’s natural gas infrastructure roadmap to create receipt points for natural gas and a pipeline transportation and distribution network linking those receipt points to natural gas consumers.
Minister Leila Benali, who has been planning a complete overhaul of the country’s gas supply arrangements since last year, stated that this reform is critical to Morocco’s overall transition to sustainable, green energy due to its environmental and economic advantages.
She remarked the importance of creating a legislative and institutional framework to spur the energy transition, as well as aligned regulatory and budgetary measures.
Benali confirmed that work on the “Nour Atlas” solar power plant, scheduled to come online in 2024, will be completed next year, along with the “Abdelmoumen” pumped-storage energy transfer station as well as 17 small hydroelectric power plants.
The minister focused on prospects for 2024 with respect to nuclear technology and safety. “We are continuing to strengthen technical cooperation between Morocco and the International Atomic Energy Agency,” she said.
A new scrubbing washing station costing 3.868 billion MAD is expected to be built in Benguerir.
Other projects include the installation of necessary infrastructure for phosphate transportation and storage to maintain the strategic capacity of the “M’zinda” mine at 2 million tons per year, and the Benguerir mine development project with a total investment of 354 million MAD.
Benali confirmed that providing electricity to the remaining villages that are not yet connected to the grid, along with necessary socio-economic infrastructure, is expected to be completed during 2023-2027, at a cost of 825 Mln MAD, bringing the rural electrification rate to 99.96% by the end of 2027.
Benali stated that Morocco is continuing its environmental monitoring and assessment of water quality (at 200 beaches), sand quality (at 62 beaches), and air quality around the kingdom.