The mining group Managem, a subsidiary of the royal holding company Al Mada, announces the creation of an industrial natural gas division and the acquisition of the British company Sound Energy Morocco East Limited already active in Morocco, notably on its Tendrara gas exploration site in the oriental. A look back at the events leading up to the deal
The Managem Group is creating an industrial natural gas division and announces the acquisition of the company Sound Energy Morocco East Limited (SEME), the British energy transition company active in Morocco.
This agreement concerns the acquisition of 55% of the Tendrara exploitation concession, 47.5% of the Grand Tendrara exploration permit and 47.5% of the Anoual exploration permit.
Upon closing of the transaction, the Tendrara project will be 55% owned by the Managem Group, 20% by Sound Energy Meridja Ltd and 25% by ONHYM.
Managem is also looking for other gas assets in Africa. The gas development plan for the Tendrara exploitation project provides for two phases.
The first, under construction, with a view to producing 100 million cubic meters per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from mid-2025 via an on-site gas processing, liquefaction and storage facility , making it possible to meet the needs of national manufacturers.
The second phase, currently undergoing a feasibility study, provides for the construction of a processing unit and a pipeline connecting the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), to supply 280 million cubic meters per year of natural gas in order to contribute to the Kingdom’s gas supply sources.
$12 million on the table and the resumption of financing of $24.5 million
The terms of the agreement provide for an amount of approximately 12 million dollars (approximately 119 million dirhams -MDH) payable upon completion of the transaction as well as the assumption of Sound Energy Plc’s share of a funding of up to $24.5 million (approximately MAD 244 million) during the completion of phase 2 of the project.
The global agreement is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions precedent, including obtaining regulatory approvals.
The gas asset portfolio subject to the transaction covers an area of approximately 23,000 km². The Tendrara concession includes an operating license of 133.5 km² granted for a period of 25 years from 2018, with resources estimated at 10.67 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Sound Energy announced on April 30 the entry into the optional additional period under exploration permits in Anoual. This new update came after the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) granted the company a new 18-month extension of the initial period of its permits for this project it is carrying out in the northeast of the kingdom.
As a reminder, last December, Sound Energy announced that ONHYM approved its request for a 12-month extension of the initial period of Anoual exploration permits, until January 8, 2024. At this period , it remained for the company to fulfill the work commitment relating to the drilling of an exploration well with a Triassic objective. This extension of the validity of the permits also concerned other projects carried out by the British company in Morocco, including Grand Tendrara and Sidi Moktar.
For its project in Tendara, the gas company had already obtained last October the extension of both the gas sales agreement with the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and the financing offer from Attijariwafa bank until December 31 of the previous year. The company then began discussions with ONEE under the aegis of the ministry to conclude amendments to the gas sales agreement. The aim of this extension was to satisfy the lenders and fulfill the conditions precedent to the conditional offer.
A few months earlier, Sound Energy, having resolved its dispute with the tax administration with the dropping of proceedings against it, had obtained a financing offer of nearly 237 million dollars (or more than 2.3 billion dirhams-MMDH ) with Attijariwafa bank, in order to finance the second phase of the development of its gas production concession project in Tendrara to ONEE.
This financing agreement, however, provided for a number of conditions to be met before the end of September, including the approval of the government, that of the structure of the loan by the tax administration and the amendment of the sale agreement of gas to satisfy the lender, are the financing conditions, claimed Sound Energy.
