Just days after King Mohammed VI of Morocco convened with government officials, including Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Minister Leila Benali, the North African kingdom announced a pause on its planned $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal on the Mediterranean coast. The project, designed to expand the country’s import capacity and reduce reliance on dirtier fuels, had been positioned as a major step in Morocco’s efforts to decarbonize its energy sector.
The Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development described the decision as a response to “new parameters and assumptions” for what it called a “highly strategic” initiative. According to the ministry, local and international operators had expressed interest in the project following tenders issued in December 2025. The terminal was expected to have a design capacity of 5 billion cubic meters a year, more than four times Morocco’s current annual demand of 1.2 billion cubic meters.
Morocco’s LNG push continues strong
While the Mediterranean terminal is now on hold, Morocco continues to plan LNG infrastructure on the Atlantic coast as part of a broader $3.5 billion program to increase gas consumption to 12 billion cubic meters by 2030. The announcement left questions about a separate tender for a floating storage and regasification unit, or FSRU, which is slated to be moored at the Nador West Med port and begin operations next year. The pre-selection deadline for that tender had been set for Jan. 30.
The Ministry outlined that the FSRU would require an estimated $273 million, while new pipelines connecting the port to major industrial hubs would cost about $681 million. These pipelines would tie into the Maghreb-Europe link, which carries imported gas from Europe, and form the backbone of a network that could one day transport green hydrogen both domestically and abroad.
Morocco funds LNG and gas plants
Morocco’s LNG ambitions are closely tied to its broader energy transition goals, including phasing out coal and expanding solar, wind, and battery storage capacity. The government plans to invest $1.5 billion in LNG import infrastructure to replace fuel oil and coal in industrial production, alongside $2 billion for gas-fired power plants that would triple gas-based electricity generation.
Beyond energy security, the LNG expansion is aimed at supporting manufacturing sectors that export to Europe, especially in the wake of lost Algerian gas supplies in 2021 following a diplomatic dispute. By freezing the $1 billion Mediterranean terminal, Morocco is recalibrating a highly strategic energy plan at a moment when the country is balancing decarbonization goals, industrial demand, and regional energy security.
