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DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA
Morocco’s SAMIR
refinery
The council then advocated for the refin- of the sale, which include restarting the refinery
ery’s nationalisation to ensure sovereignty and and providing local financial guarantees. The lat-
to balance supply and demand. Meanwhile, ter has reportedly been the main sticking point.
the new head of the MCC said that “preserving The seemingly endless legal cases have failed
the national refinery will require bold political to bring any resolution. In fact, as these have pro-
decision-making”. ceeded, clarity appears to have diminished. Offi-
cial receiver Mohamed El Krimi was replaced
An offer emerges in May 2018 by Abdelkbir Safadi amid disputes
Finally, in September 2019, an offer of $2.4bn between the parties involved.
was submitted by UAE-based Petroen Engi- Krimi had successfully argued the year before
neering following a lengthy Moroccan media that the liquidation be extended to the private
campaign. assets of SAMIR executives. However, given that
However, despite the massive mark-up six of the companies are foreigners, Rabat will
Petroen was willing to agree to and no others struggle to enforce the ruling beyond banning
having been received that were on a par with it, them from doing any business in Morocco for
nearly a year later a final deal has failed to materi- five years.
alise, and the fate of SAMIR remains up in the air.
According to The Africa Report, the judge History repeating
assigned to the case is taking his time to examine For Moroccans weary of the SAMIR saga, talk
the offer. of a new investor and a new refinery will surely
Meanwhile, Downstream MEA (DMEA) hold great appeal.
understands that the price and duration of the VEB signed a memorandum on the new
lease for the storage units is still being negotiated. 100,000 bpd unit with the Russian Export Group
The lease of the storage tanks will increase the and local firm MYA Energy, which is part of the
country’s inventory from 30 days to 90 days. Marita Group, during a Russia-Africa Summit.
However, any optimism should be tempered
Legal case by a brief history of Morocco’s ‘other’ refinery,
With court rulings determining that the com- Sidi Kacem, which is located 217 km north of
pany failed because of poor management, Casablanca. Built with the help of Eni, which
Al-Amoudi has maintained that the closure held a stake in the unit from completion until
was the fault of the Moroccan authorities. it was nationalised in 1973, the 26,000 bpd Sidi
Al-Amoudi filed a complaint against Rabat Kacem was shut permanently in 2009 in order to
with the International Center for Settlement of improve economics at SAMIR. The mothballed
Investment Disputes (ICSID) in early 2018 and facility is now used as a storage facility.
in April 2019 claimed that he the government While the SAMIR debacle continues to play
owed him $1.5bn in compensation for the fail- out, such an investment would suggest that
ure of SAMIR. few lessons, if any, have been learned from Sidi
These uncertainties do little to attract poten- Kacem. In any case, $2.4bn is a hefty price tag for
tial investors, particularly given the strict terms a glorified storage facility.
Week 33 20•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
