Rabat – Thanks to both its leading finalized and ongoing mega projects, Morocco is becoming a key, indispensable player in Africa’s ever-shifting economic and geopolitical landscape.
In the ever-strategic and critical energy sector, Morocco is working hard to enter the liquefied gas and other renewable energy markets in order to achieve its self-sufficiency.
The country is making huge investments, with an overall budget that exceeds $50 billion to invest in massive projects like Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, as well as a second Al Boraq (high-speed train) project to link Casablanca and Agadir.
With their positive target and defined goals, these projects are poised to make Morocco’s economy a tough competitor for industrialized nations and a model for developing ones.
Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project
Among the biggest sustainable development projects in Morocco is the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project.
According to Xlinks, a British Green energy company and the project’s developer, the Morocco-UK Power Project will be a new electricity-producing facility that will be fully powered by solar and wind energy, along with a battery storage facility.
With an overall budget of $21.9 billion, Xlinks plans to construct a solar farm with a 7 GW capacity, in addition to a wind farm with a 3.5 GW capacity and a 20 GWh/5GW battery storage.
Set to be located in the renewable energy-rich area of Guelmim Oued Noun in Morocco, the project will encompass around 1,500 square kilometers and will be solely connected to Great Britain by 3,800 kilometer-long undersea cables.
For the first phase of the Morocco-UK Power Project, Xlinks will produce four 3,800-kilometer subsea cables, with the first one expected to be operational in early 2027.
During the first sequence, which will last from 2025 to 2027, the project developer will connect Moroccan solar energy with Alverdiscott in North Devon.
When completed, the sea cable — the world’s longest of its kind that will be made up of twin 1.8 GW HVDC subsea cables — will be capable of transporting 10.5 gigawatts (GW) of green energy from this wind and solar farm in Morocco.
The cables will commute through shallow water along Morocco’s coast to the United Kingdom, passing through the territorial waters of Spain, Portugal, and France.
Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline
In addition to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, Morocco and Nigeria are on their way to developing a bigger and more important green energy project — the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline — with the aim of expanding their South-South cooperation.
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project was proposed in December 2016 following the signing of an agreement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) is a new regional onshore and offshore gas pipeline designed to transport Nigeria’s natural gas resources to 13 nations in West and North Africa. It is an extension of the existing West African Gas Pipeline that connects Nigeria to Benin, Togo, and Ghana.
This massive project — which will be an extension of the existing West African Gas Pipeline that connects Nigeria to Benin, Togo, and Ghana — aims to connect Nigerian gas to every West African coastline country, ending at Tangiers in Morocco and Cadiz in Spain.
This 5,660-kilometer-long pipeline will begin in Nigeria and travel through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania before ending in Tangiers, Morocco, with a possible extension to Europe via Spain.
The project is expected to cost $25 billion and would be finished in phases over the course of 25 years.
This historic initiative is in accordance with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari’s “Decade of Gas Master Plan” which, unveiled in 2020, aims to increase Nigeria’s gas output and exports.
It is also part of King Mohammed VI’s commitment to South-South cooperation, aiming to create a competitive regional power market that will benefit West African people, governments, and economies.
Al Boraq Between Casablanca and Agadir
In accordance with Morocco’s succession of enormous projects, the Al Boraq high-speed train is another notable project that focuses on the structural development of a multi-modal transportation system.
Following the success of the high-speed line between Casablanca and Tangier – Africa’s first high-speed rail system – Morocco is developing a second high-speed line connecting Casablanca and Agadir.
After the Moroccan National Railways Office (ONCF) examined a feasibility study for the construction of a high-speed line between Casablanca and Agadir through Marrakesh, the high-speed sector project was launched to provide a significant push to King Mohammed VI’s vision of economic dynamism.
According to a 2013 report by the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, and Logistics, Morocco has developed a management plan to supply the nation with a 1,500-kilometer high-speed rail network by 2035.
The project’s goal is to connect Tangier and Agadir in less than four hours through Rabat – Casablanca, Marrakech, and Essaouira (the Atlantic line), and Casablanca to Oujda in less than three hours via Meknes and Fez (the Maghreb line).
This high-speed Boraq train line from Casablanca to Agadir would cost up to MAD 75 billion ($7.5 billion), with ONCF investing MAD 7.7 billion ($848 million) between 2022 and 2024 to update and rebuild the nation’s railway infrastructure.
Will Morocco be able to complete these projects?
Morocco’s potential to boost its economy can be very remarkable in the projects and initiatives it is currently working on. But can Morocco actually win this bet? Can it finance all these big projects at once?
Looking at massive projects completed in Morocco over the previous ten years, the country is beginning to garner international attention as a role model, being a nation with great potential and qualifications.
According to statistics compiled in 2021 by Global Data, an international data analytics and consultancy firm, Morocco’s recent gas projects, especially Tendrara and Anchois, bring the country “closer to unlocking [its] domestic gas riches.”
While Tendrara can anticipate “productive growth” by mid-2022, and Anchois “will be by far the largest gas development undertaken in Morocco to date,” Santiago Varela, an analyst at GlobalData, argues that funding will be the key challenge for both projects.
“Although the economics of Tendrara and Anchois projects looks tempting, it is not yet clear whether the current operators will be able to finalize the necessary funding required to develop the fields. Securing capital is the final roadblock in the path for unlocking the country’s gas resources,” Varela said.
For her, “Morocco has failed to develop its major gas discoveries to date, mainly due to the fact that oil has been the preferred resource over gas.” Yet, “with the focus turning to gas, an attractive fiscal framework, and strong domestic demand,” Varela noted, “international operators are pushing hard to develop the country’s resources.”
Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, and Al Boraq Between Casablanca and Agadir are all great projects that will boost Morocco’s economy and status as Africa’s key player, but the only remaining issue — as in previous high-budget projects — is funding them.