Tangier – The oil terminal in Tangier Med port platform, a large-scale infrastructure which provides Morocco of a large oil gate on the Strait of Gibraltar, was inaugurated on Friday.
The inauguration ceremony of this terminal, which required an investment of 1.6 billion dirhams, including 1.5 billion paid by the concessionary firm, Horizon Tangiers Terminals company (HTT), was chaired by Aziz Rebbah, Minister of Equipment and Transport, Fouad Douiri, Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, Abdelkader Aâmara, Minister of Industry, Trade and New Technologies and Mohamed Najib Boulif, Minister Delegate for General Affairs and Governance.
On this occasion, the ministers, accompanied by several officials and figures, visited the facilities of the control room of the new terminal and gave the kickoff of the pumping operations of a tanker at berth, bringing the terminal into service.
In a press statement, Douiri stressed the importance of this large-scale port infrastructure, particularly its storage capacity of over 500,000 m3 of petroleum products, the importance of investment and partnership between a Moroccan group and two other partners from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, noting that the Moroccan companies have contributed to implementing the project on time and without any accident.
The terminal, which is of strategic interest to Morocco, will improve the storage capacity of oil, a key factor in ensuring security of supply of the domestic market, the minister said.
He said the platform will also have missions to supply the ships through the Strait of Gibraltar and perform trading operations.
Douiri has also highlighted the prospects of future development of this terminal, “which is a new building block of Morocco’s economic development.”
The oil terminal in Tangier Med has been granted for a period of 25 years to the HTT, a group formed by Emirati Horizon Terminals Ltd., Moroccan company Afriquia SMDC and Kuwaiti firm Independent Petroleum Group, to conduct the design, the financing, construction and commissioning of the terminal port superstructure and the development of commercial activity.
With a deep water oil post that can receive tankers of 280 linear meters, a second position in the oil project, and 35 km of pipeline, the terminal, comprising 12 hectares of port yards reserved for storage, is equipped with 19 tanks with a total storage capacity of 508 000 m3.
