Energy Minister Leila Benali confirmed, while passing through the House of Councilors, that stocks of petroleum products have reached more than 30 days of national consumption. This is a slight improvement over April 2022 levels, when they were just over 26 days old. The minister then denounced this situation, considering it unsatisfactory.
Leila Benali also confirmed that projects are underway to develop additional storage capacity for petroleum products, as the storage level is supposed to gain an additional 13 days by 2023, in exchange for an investment of about two billion dirhams.
If storage capacities are to reach 45 days this year, those levels are still far from the 60 days required by law. Hydrocarbon distributors have never respected this requirement, which has exposed the country to great risks in terms of its supplies.
However, in his inaugural address to the legislative session on October 8, 2021, His Majesty King Mohammed VI gave his high instructions to establish a “An integrated national system targeting the strategic reserve of basic necessitiesThese products include gasoline, diesel and butane.
Since then, the ministry responsible for the oil sector has not revealed any plan in this field. The minister explained that Law No. 009.71 and Resolution No. 393.76 do not give the state a direct role in creating reserve stocks. Therefore, unless the law is amended, the option of renting a SAMIR storage container is not on the agenda.
If the Leila Benali division is unable to apply the law in a narrow sense to hydrocarbon distributors, what other option can be considered? In this matter, the French example should be considered. The French legislator created the Professional Committee for Stocks Stratégiques Petroliers (CPSSP), which oversees an independent entity set up by the country’s oil operators: the Société Anonyme de Gestion de Stocks de Sécurité (SAGES).
Sufyan is a martyr