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Morocco: Tendrara Gas Sale Agreement Postponed Due to Coronavirus

Supplied by AAWSAT AR
Supplied by AAWSAT AR
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Morocco: Tendrara Gas Sale Agreement Postponed Due to Coronavirus

Supplied by AAWSAT AR
Supplied by AAWSAT AR

British gas company Sound Energy PLC has announced requesting Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) to postpone signing Tendrara Gas Sales Agreement (GSA).

In a statement on Wednesday, the company said that the signing event was scheduled to take place on March 31. However, COVID-19 related travel restrictions and closure of borders have prevented parties from meeting to conclude the deal.

The company announced on October 30, 2019 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with ONEE.

Under the MOU, “the parties have agreed to use their reasonable endeavors to continue negotiations with a view to entering into a binding GSA, incorporating the key terms of the MOU announced in October and construed under Moroccan law, prior to March 31.”

The Company affirmed that the GSA negotiations are ongoing and announced that it is in the process of agreeing a further amendment to the MOU with ONEE to extend the period for negotiations of the final GSA to June 30.

It has licenses for natural gas exploration in the Tendrara natural gas field, on an area of 14.6 thousand square kilometers, in which 10 drilling wells have been excavated so far. Last year, it entered into a 25-year 133.5 km exploitation agreement.

The Tendrara GSA with ONEE aims to supply two power plants in northern Morocco with natural gas. The production capacity of these plants is estimated at 4,000 megawatts.

In late 2019, Sound Energy received approval from Morocco’s authorities to build and operate a new gas pipeline in the country.

The Tendrara Gas Export Pipeline is planned to connect the proposed gas treatment plant and compression station to Gazoduc Maghreb Europe (GME) pipeline.

The pipeline, 120 km long and 20 inch wide, will cross the Matarka Commune (Figuig province) and Merija Commune (Jerada province) to reach the delivery point of the GME.

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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.