Morocco hopes to become an LNG importer from 2021. It has received “very attractive offers” from potential LNG suppliers, according to its energy ministry. The project’s timeline meshes with the end of a gas supply deal from neighboring Algeria, with whom Morocco enjoys fractious relations.

Morocco has been drumming up interest from international companies in its planned $4.6bn project for a LNG import terminal capable of importing up to 7 bcm/year of gas to be located at Jorf Lasfar deep-water port on the Atlantic coast, some 100 km south of Casablanca. Russian state-owned giant Gazprom is the latest company touted as a potential seller, joining Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Engie (formerly GdF Suez) and the UAE’s Taqa in the queue of suitors (MEES, 27 March). (CONTINUED - 1003 WORDS)