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For at least two years, active oil and gas companies in Morocco have multiplied their announcements of discoveries of deposits and the «potentiality» of drilling. Last September, a British company evoked a potential gas concerning its offshore license located off Larache.
Similar announcements were exaggerated by other companies to try to attract foreign investors to conduct further discoveries in the Kingdom.
It has been more than a century since Morocco began drilling operations with the aim of becoming an oil-producing country, a dream that has turned into an illusion. «Before 1914, oil seeps had been discovered on the banks of the Rif River and east of the Gharb plain, which led several private companies to take an interest in oil exploration in Morocco», writes researcher Jacqueline Bouquerel, in «The oil in Morocco» (Journal Les Cahiers d'Outre-Mer, 1966).
Modest quantities processed in Morocco
The surveys were done in a «fragmentary» way. From 1919 to 1928, the outcome was «less than 5,000 meters [having] been drilled; with only three holes exceeding the depth of 300 meters», she adds.
However, oil extraction firms in Morocco were impatient and desperate. In April 1929, Morocco decided to review its cards, by creating the Society of Cherifian Petroleum (SCP), from existing companies, all under the propulsion of the Bureau of Research and Mining Interests (BRPM). The company takes care of drilling itself. It was only in 1934 that they announced with great privilege the discovery of the Jebel Tselfate deposit, in the region of Sidi Kacem.
«Surveys and geological studies continued to spring oil from the Aïn Hamra field of Bou Draa, almost empty [in 1966 already, ed], but which was a valuable addition to Morocco during the war».
And as early as 1947, prospections multiply. On the other hand, until 1950, production remains low, reaching barely 40,000 tons per year. And despite the «successive discoveries of oil reservoirs, near Wadi Beht, downstream of El Kansera, the deposits of Sidi Fili, Bled Eddoum, Bled Khatara and Zraar [then the field of Haricha]», the production hardly exceeded to 118,000 tons in 1954.
At the time, crude oil production barely covered 15% of Morocco's needs, which were estimated at 700,000 tons a year. To put it in other words, petroleum prospects and reserves remained «modest». Hence, the strategy of the SCP, which was based on the multiplication of drilling, led, between 1958 and 1959, to the update of gas deposits located in Jebel Jeer, Jebel Kechoula, close to Safi.
Exploration stopped several times
At the same time, the promulgation of the hydrocarbons law has attracted international investment. The explorations carried out by «BRPM and its partners had been extended to most Moroccan basins», says The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), the organization which replaced BRPM in 2003. The «discovery of commercial accumulations of oil and gas in the basins of Essaouira and Gharb» was a prime example of that. Two years later, in November 1961, the Sidi Ghalem well near Mogador was already starting to produce «reserves estimated at more than one million tons» at the time, Jacqueline Bouquerel says.
In 1962, Moroccan oil production rose to about 124,000 tons, and of natural gas to about 9 million cubic meters. A production that would be entirely carried in Morocco, while a «significant supplement in crude or refined oil had to be purchased from abroad». Two years later, surveys from five different oil companies including the SCP revealed that the situation in several regions was «disappointing». It was also that year that the oil exploration was slowed, then definitely stopped in 1965.
At the end of 1981, thanks to the basins discovered in Essaouira and Gharb, «the cumulative production of oil was around 9 million barrels and 35 billion cubic feet of gas», says ONHYM. Although Morocco created the National Office for Research and Petroleum Exploration (ONAREP) between 1981-1986, to develop the exploration of hydrocarbons, the «counter oil shock of 1986», dropped the oil price down to $10, slowing down the activities in Morocco throughout this period until 1999.
After Talsint, it's time for caution
In the 2000s, Morocco revived its ambitions. It amended its hydrocarbons law, providing attractive opportunities for foreign companies, which was considered as a double-edged opening. It was during this same period that the Talsint affair broke out.
Thus, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, the Monarch announced to Moroccans via national television, the «discovery of oil and gas in Talsint».
A few years later, Lone Star, the company in charge of this project found itself at the heart of a legal matter, having not kept its promises to allow Morocco to «self-sufficiency during 30 years».
A lesson that Morocco will remember. In 2003, the Moroccan authorities decided to have ONAREP and BRPM merged to create ONHYM. Indeed, the public organization became a partner in all exploration licenses granted to foreign companies which have since been very cautious about the multiple announcements they make.
For now, no major discovery of oil or gas that would allow Morocco to become a producer and exporter has been confirmed.
