Morocco has received expression of interest (EOI) documents from 93 companies for its estimated $4.6bn gas to power project at Jorf Lasfar.

According to the client, Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE), expressions of interest (EOI) were received from 93 companies from 20 countries.

ONEE invited companies to express interest for the contract to design, construct, finance and maintain the gas to power scheme.

The Jorf Lasfar scheme was launched in December 2014 and is located 118 kilometres from Casablanca. The project will include:

• Marine jetty at Jorf Lasfar
• Liquefied natural gas (LNG) importing terminal, including storage
• High-pressure gas pipeline that will connect LNG terminal to the existing Maghreb Europe high-pressure gas pipeline
• 2,400MW combined-cycle power plants, which will use gas received from the LNG importing terminal

The planned LNG import terminal will have a capacity of 7 billion cubic metres and is expected to cost about $800m, while the budget for the associated pipelines and jetty is expected to be $600m.

Morocco is the biggest energy importer in North Africa and has benefited financially from the drop in global energy prices over the past two years.

MEED reported in 2015 that firms had been invited to bid for the technical and financial advisory contracts for the gas to power project.