SAIPEC 2025: ONHYM Highlights Morocco’s Competitive Advantages in Oil, Gas Industry
By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
Morocco’s state-owned energy company, Office National des Hydrocarbon et des Mines, ONHYM, showcased the country’s energy prospects and its competitive advantages in the oil and gas industry at the 2025 PETAN’s Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, SAIPEC, held in Lagos.
Speaking on behalf of ONHYM, Didi Salwa, The Head of the Offshore Evaluation Division at ONHYM, said Morocco’s oil and gas sector presents an enticing prospect for investors and industry players.
Salwa said Morocco also offers one of the most attractive oil and gas incentives in the world, with a reduced government interest rate of 25%.
She made this known during her presentation at the SAIPEC 2025 panel session focused on the African NOCs Country Showcase.
According to her, Morocco offers the lowest Royalty rates in the oil and gas industry coupled with a corporate tax exemption for two years after an operator commences production.
“Our hydrocarbon law is very attractive and an opportunity for investors and partners to invest in Morocco.
“We have a fixed contractual framework dedicated to exploration and production stages.”
Speaking further, she stated that Morocco has three kinds of oil and gas contracts that provide frameworks for contractual agreements and acquisitions.
“It includes exploration permit documentation signed between the investor and government based on award programs such as Seismic and drilling activities.
“There is also exploration concession documentation which will be issued after commercial discovery.”
Highlighting the role of ONHYM in Morocco’s oil and gas industry, she said the company’s key focus areas are centralized on mining exploration, hydrocarbon exploration, and midstream activities.
On exploration, she said ONHYM is focused on the exploration of hydrocarbons, mineral deposits, and any mineral substance as well as providing operators and partners with all the necessary support for oil and gas activities in Morocco.
For energy consumption, She revealed Morocco’s primary energy consumption is approximately 23 million tons of oil equivalent and 93% of its energy is imported.
“Morocco has a high energy demand. By 2030, we will consume approximately 43 million tons of oil equivalent (TOE),” she revealed.
While highlighting other competitive advantages of Morroco, she stressed that Morroco is also a politically stable country with a unique geographic location of 3,500 KM of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
She added that Morocco is 15km distance from Europe and No.1 in North Africa in terms of infrastructure development with 14 commercial ports open to international trade and 25 airports.
In addition, Morocco is strategically located close to major trading partners such as Spain, Italy, France, and other EU states.
ONHYM is also involved in the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project.
As part of the 2025 Action Plan by the ONHYM, it launched tenders for the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project.
These tenders cover the initial phases of the project. Besides Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal are also included in the first phase.
Morocco covers 1,672 kilometers of the 5,600 km-long pipeline that will also connect the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline and the European gas network.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited deployed the first compressor station for the far-reaching project which is set to motion across Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.
A second round of memoranda of understanding last year expanded the pipeline network to include Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Benin.
