The Moroccan oil dream collides with complex rocks

“A complex geological structure.” A conclusion that appears in more than one scientific study searching for an answer to a question asked by Moroccans: When will we become an oil state?

The latest of these conclusions was stated by the Vice President of the Association of Geologists and Geophysicists in Spain, Jorge Navarro, who told the Spanish website “El Economista” last week that many oil companies have resumed exploration activities in the marine areas of Morocco in recent years, but “the results are mostly disappointing.” For reasons including the geology of the discovered fields and the “complex rock” structure, which makes discovery difficult.


Geological complexities
A report issued by the Association of Geologists and Geophysicists in Spain indicates that oil companies have intensified exploration operations in Morocco in recent years.

Indeed, data from the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Minerals, the Moroccan government body charged with monitoring oil and gas exploration operations, show an increase in the pace of exploration operations in the last decade.

These exploration operations led to oil discoveries in various sites in Larache (north) and Tenderara (east), as well as sites in the south, but it later became clear that what was found was less than expected.

In August 2024, Energen and Chariot began drilling a well off the coast of Larache using the sixth-generation ship Stena Forth. However, the drilling process ended a month later after it appeared that the quantities of gas discovered were much less than previous expectations, according to the Association of Geologists and Geophysicists in Spain.

A detailed official study issued by the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Minerals revealed that some of the areas where exploration operations are taking place “are characterized by the presence of a complex geological structure, which makes the exploration process difficult.”

This particular point was mentioned in previous reports and studies, which recommended that the authorities supervising hydrocarbon exploration seek to overcome it by adopting “new methods.”
Excavation map
So far, there are three oil production basins in Morocco: Essaouira, Tenderara, and Rabat.

The majority of the fields in the country are located on land, but the quantities of hydrocarbons discovered and produced in these basins are very low compared to their vast area, according to a study by the “GeoExpro” Council, which specializes in energy.

Studies of the difficulties of finding major oil wells in Morocco so far are justified by “the complex tectonic history of Morocco,” as an American geological study indicated that tectonic movements between the African and American plates led to the formation of “folds that work to confine hydrocarbons” and make the prospecting process difficult.

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