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| Finding Energy |
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| Wednesday, 26 November 2008 | |||||||
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The kingdom imports 96% of its energy requirements, while the national oil bill rose sharply in 2008 - coming in at $1.1bn in the first quarter of the year, 69% higher compared to the same period in 2007. With such high costs, it is no surprise that Circle Oil's discovery of natural gas in west Morocco's Gharb region has generated a deluge of media coverage. Morocco announced Circle's testing of 3.32m cu feet of natural gas on November 12, but until extended tests are complete, it is difficult to evaluate the significance of the discovery. The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mining (ONHYM) confirmed that the gas was found in well ONZ6 on the Ouled N'Zala Permit, according to the state news agency. ONZ6 is the first of six wells that Circle began to assess in September, following the detection of anomalies in a 3D seismic survey conducted in 2007. Work began in November on CGD9, a second well, while construction has also started on the platform of KSF8, a third well. These wells are among about 100 in the Gharb basin, with Circle Oil and Cabre Oil being the two companies to exploit their resources. According to ONHYM, there are in total 29 oil exploitation companies working in on- and off-shore sites in Morocco. But Morocco will not reshape its energy policies around a discovery where the yields are still largely speculative. Although its next-door neighbour Algeria has massive hydrocarbon reserves of 12.3bn barrels of oil and around 4.5trn cu metres of gas, Morocco has only 1m barrels of oil and 50bn cu feet of natural gas, making diversification a must. The kingdom has begun to pursue other energy options, including wind, solar and nuclear, as domestically produced alternatives to oil and natural gas imports. The government is planning for a tenth of the national energy balance and 20% ]of national electric production to come from renewable sources by 2012, an impressive goal considering that the current level is just under 1%. Still, with a large and steady wind system and strong, consistent sunlight, Morocco certainly has the potential to reach this ambitious goal. Thus far the major initiatives have focused on wind power, with wind-generated energy expected to supply 15% of total energy by 2020. Morocco's first wind installation was the 50-MW project in El Koudia El Baida, built in 2000, which was followed by the development of various other projects. Two additional new wind farms are currently under construction: a 130-MW field near Tangier and a 100-MW field in Taza, 100 km east of Fez. In addition to wind farms, solar plants have sprung up in Morocco. 2007 saw the construction of a plant in Tit Mellil, consisting of 1024 solar panels (50-KW), while Ain Beni Mathar (472-MW, including 20-MW solar) will be operational in 2009. Although there have been preliminary discussions, nuclear power plants have not been developed as rapidly as other sources of renewable energy. In 2007, while on a state visit to the kingdom, French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced that France and Morocco would cooperate to develop civil nuclear energy. Both the US and Russia had previously made efforts to collaborate with Morocco to build the country's first nuclear power station, but neither the American company General Atomics, nor the Russian firm Atomstroiexport was able to move forward on the project. And though French cooperation was announced over a year ago, progress has been slow. Amina Benkhadra, Morocco's minister of energy, mining, water and environment, emphasised to OBG [j16]that the installation of "a very specialised infrastructure" will mean that the first 900-MW unit will not be operational before 2017. But despite the delay, nuclear energy is now an integral part of the country's investment programme, according to Younes Maamar, CEO of Office National de l'Electricité (ONE), the state electricity company. "The decision has been taken, but it takes a very long time for a nuclear project to get under way," he told OBG. International partnership and investment is an important part of the development of the Moroccan renewables plan, but the kingdom is taking additional steps to strengthen its domestic sector. At a meeting on renewable energy prospects for the Arab Maghreb countries held in Rabat in late October, Mouloud Ait Haddou, Morocco's general secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, announced plans for a new "knowledge campus" as part of its $3.2bn five-year renewable energy investment plan, which will run between 2009 and 2014. The campus is expected to open by 2010 as part of a $219m clean energy industrial park. According to Driss Zejli, head of the Renewable Energy Economy and Technologies Unit at Morocco's National Centre for Scientific and Technological Research, the park will house long-term research projects, training courses and conferences, with its specific geographic location creating opportunities for knowledge sharing, technology transfer and science cooperation between Morocco and Europe, and between Morocco and other Arabic and African countries. OBN
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