Morocco’s oil imports dropped by 14.5 percent reaching $930 million in the first half of 2002 compared to one billion dollars during the first six months of last year, reported the Kingdom’s foreign trade bureau.
The decrease was attributed to a 53 percent decrease in gasoline and fuel imports and a 21.7 percent drop in hydrocarbon imports. Morocco spent 21 billion Moroccan dirhams ($1.5 billion) on crude oil imports in the year 2000. Of this figure, $1.5 billion was imported from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
In 2000, the American-Moroccan Lone Star Energy Company discovered oil for the first time off Moroccan shores. It estimated Moroccan oil reserves at 1.5 to two billion barrels in the Talsent region, and 12 billion barrels off the country’s Atlantic coast. The discovery is expected to greatly reduce expenditures on oil imports in the future. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
