Morocco’s Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du Raffinage (Samir) will be liquidated, a bankruptcy court has decided, according to local press.

Samir had appealed against the liquidation, promising a $680m capital injection by its majority owner, Saudi Arabia’s Corral Petroleum.

The 150,000-barrel-a-day Mohammedia refinery may still be sold off during the liquidation process. As Morocco’s only refinery, its permanent closure would leave the country totally reliant on imported fuel.

Corral Petroleum owns 67.3 per cent of Samir, which is listed on the Casablanca Bourse.

The Morrocan firm is thought to have total debts of MD44bn ($4.6bn), after it failed to hedge against the decline in oil prices in 2015. This includes $1.4bn owed to the Moroccan tax authorities, as well as debts to oil traders.

Samir also secured $700m of project finance in 2006, when it began upgrading the refinery. The loan had a 13-year tenor and involved local and international banks, including the UK’s Barclays and France’s BNP Paribas, and Italian export credit agency Sace.

The refinery was permitted to restart operations for three months, after shutting down in August 2015.