Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) has invited consultants to submit proposals for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the planned $4.6bn gas-to-power project at Jorf Lasfar.

The submission date for bids for the study is 21 September 2017.

MEED reported in January that ONEE had appointed banking and legal advisers for the gas-to-power scheme. The utility has selected HSBC Middle East Limited as financial adviser and has appointed the law firm Ashurst as legal advisor for the deal.

The appointed adviser will assist ONEE with the negotiation and completion of LNG sale and purchase agreements for the development of the gas-to-power project.

In 2016, MEED reported that ONEE had awarded a technical consultancy contract to a joint venture of France’s Sofregaz and Denmark’s Ramboll for the planned scheme.

The Jorf Lasfar project will be located 118 kilometres from Casablanca. It will consist of:

• A marine jetty at Jorf Lasfar
• An LNG import terminal, including storage
• A high-pressure gas pipeline that will connect the LNG terminal to the existing Maghreb Europe high-pressure gas pipeline
• A 2,400MW combined-cycle power plant that will use gas received from the LNG import terminal

The 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.