Together with its ambitious aspirations to transport the hydrogen from North Africa to Europe, Morocco has a great opportunity to join the Mediterranean hydrogen project via its neighbor, Spain.
Previous European plans to use underutilized gas infrastructure in Morocco and Algeria to ship North African and Middle Eastern hydrogen to Europe have increased Morocco’s chances of participating in this massive project.
According to Hydrogen Central, Katharina Reich, the head of Germany’s National Hydrogen Council, advocated utilizing 85% of currently operating gas transmission lines in Morocco and Algeria and reconfiguring them to transport hydrogen in the future.
Reich also suggested building a new hydrogen pipeline that would go from Italy to Greece, then across the Mediterranean to Egypt, and finally to Middle Eastern nations via Cairo.
In response to a query from the specialized energy platform asking for comment on the proposed European hydrogen line between Spain, France, and Portugal and whether Rabat could participate in it or not, the global website of the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development in Morocco did not respond.
Between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, Morocco and Spain share a maritime border at the Canary Islands. In the midst of conflicts over Madrid’s intention to expand its continental shelf west of the Canary Islands by 220 square kilometers, the Moroccan and Spanish parties have been negotiating the demarcation of the maritime border for years (which are still ongoing).
In collaboration with the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, the British companies Chariott and Oort, as well as Morocco, are establishing pilot projects for the production of green hydrogen.
A strategy to establish integrated networks capable of exporting hydrogen to Europe was unveiled by the Moroccan Minister of Energy Transition in April 2022.
With technical alterations to the gas infrastructure framework, the idea expands on earlier European experiences transferring hydrogen via natural gas pipelines that are already in place.
