Morocco selected five investors and six green hydrogen projects under "Offre Maroc"

The "Offre Maroc" steering committee, chaired by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, selected on 6 March 2025 in Rabat five domestic and international investors to carry out six green hydrogen projects in the southern provinces; the combined value of the projects is 319 billion dirhams, that is, according to different conversions about USD 32–35 billion.

What "Offre Maroc" is

According to the government statement, cited by Hespress, "Offre Maroc" (the Morocco Offer) is a national offer for green hydrogen investors, implemented in line with the vision of King Mohammed VI and his guidance from the Throne Speech of July 2023, which called for swift and high-quality action. Work on it was carried out by the Prime Minister's office from 11 March 2024. The offer includes the allocation of public land — up to 30 thousand ha per project — with use controlled through agreements. The government announced that the offer remains open to further investors.

The March 2025 selection

At a meeting in Rabat on Thursday 6 March 2025, chaired by Prime Minister Akhannouch, the committee selected five investors for six projects in the southern provinces with a combined value of 319 billion dirhams (Hespress, TelQuel; Hydrogen Insight gave USD 32.8 billion). According to the government statement, those selected are: the ORNX alliance made up of the American Ortus, the Spanish Acciona and the German Nordex (ammonia); the alliance of TAQA from the UAE and the Spanish Cepsa (ammonia and synthetic fuels); the Moroccan Nareva (ammonia, synthetic fuels and green steel); the Saudi ACWA Power (ammonia); and a group of two Chinese companies, UEG and China Three Gorges (ammonia). The six projects are supplemented by two further ones from the agreements of October 2024, concluded during President Macron's visit: an agreement with TotalEnergies and an OCP–Engie arrangement on the joint development of five projects, including one with green hydrogen.

What next

The further course of implementation is described in the update; the current status must be checked in announcements of the Moroccan government and the MASEN agency.

Significance for the renewable gas market

For Europe it is important that Morocco, located in close proximity, may become a supplier of hydrogen and ammonia. In the EU, whether such a fuel is recognised as renewable is decided by the RFNBO rules (additionality, temporal and geographical correlation), discussed in the article Electrolysis versus biohydrogen: RFNBO. In the short term biomethane and hydrogen therefore compete for similar customers (industry, transport), although their production costs and technological maturity cannot be compared directly.

Risks

• Financing and offtake contracts: projects of this scale require long-term agreements with buyers.
• Water: the region is arid, so electrolysis requires seawater desalination.
• Infrastructure: ports, transmission lines and ammonia installations.
• Data transparency: differences in figures in reports make it difficult to assess progress.