The Executive Office of the National Front for the Safeguarding of the Moroccan Petroleum Refinery (formerly SAMIR) met on Wednesday October 5, 2022 at the headquarters of the association located rue du Prince Moulay Abdallah in the center of Casablanca, in order to discuss the issues related to soaring fuel prices, the shutdown of oil refining in Morocco, the report of the Competition Council on hydrocarbons and bills amending the law on the Competition Council and the law on freedom of prices and competition.
The Executive Bureau discussed the popular uproar and growing social tensions resulting from the heavy repercussions of inflation and the rising cost of living, as well as the negative position of the government with regard to the file of the outbreak of fuel prices, a government that shirks its responsibilities and refuses to deal seriously and responsibly with this surge created by the lifting of subsidies, the liberalization of the sector and the increase in obscene profits for operators.
The Executive Office also dealt with the passive attitude of the government and its indifference to the waste of the national heritage constituted by the assets of the SAMIR company, an attitude which does not fail to waste the opportunity for Morocco to benefit from the considerable advantages procured by petroleum refining industries. The Executive Office has, moreover, highlighted the gray areas of the opinion of the Competition Council on fuels, which is likely to confuse the issue and normalize the exorbitant level of prices.
Finally, the Executive Bureau examined the shortcomings and risks identified in the bills amending the law on the Competition Council and the law on free pricing and competition. On the strength of these observations and analyzes and in the light of the conclusions of the debate between its members, the Executive Office of the National Front for the safeguard of the Moroccan oil refinery (The Front), brings to the attention of the national public opinion what follows:
1. The Front decides to organize a press conference which will take place on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 10 a.m. at the Rabat lawyers’ club, to shed full light on the gray areas of the report of the Competition Council on the increase in fuel prices, to highlight the elements of contextualization and the implications, and to highlight the shortcomings of the bills amending the law on the Competition Council and the law on the freedom of prices and competition.
2. The Front warns against the serious repercussions of fuel prices on social peace, the daily life of citizens and the balances of companies consuming oil energy, and renews its call to restore a regulation of the prices of hydrocarbons according to a new price structure that respects the purchasing power of all citizens and consumers and limits the obscene profits of the sector, while working to recover those accumulated since the liberation of the sector (more than 45 billion dirhams at the end of 2021) in order to support , reduce and cap fuel prices, like the public policies adopted in this area by many countries.
3. The Front deplores all forms of interference and oriented statements, at the request, hostile to the existence of the SAMIR company, as it underlines the importance of the oil refining industries for the strengthening of national energy security and the reduction in the prices of refined products and hydrocarbons, more than half of which are imported from Europe, a continent which does not produce crude oil but refines it for all that in refineries, some of which are well below the specifications of the Morocco refinery.
The Front also calls on the government to fully assume its responsibilities by ensuring the resumption of oil refining at the Mohammedia refinery, through the acquisition of its assets through compensation for public money which is frozen within of the debt of the SAMIR company.
Finally, the Front reiterates its insistence on the opening of a global investigation with a view to determining responsibility for the damage caused to the Nation following the privatization of the SAMIR company and the silence of senior officials in the face of the abuses and excesses of the former owner of this company.
4. The Front considers that the opinion of the Competition Council on the increase in fuel prices comes at a time when Moroccans are awaiting a decision on the complaint relating to suspicions of cartels on the prices of hydrocarbons, a file pending since 2016, although it confirmed evidence about the existence of concentration in the sector and the absence of conditions of competition within the fuel market, which exposed the rights of consumers to predation by large companies controlling more than two-thirds of the market.
Nevertheless, the point of view of the parties, chosen with selectivity, was not taken into account when the Competition Council ruled on its own recommendation that it had previously issued where it considered that Morocco should hold the keys refining industries, when he avoided talking about the years 2016-2017, the report of the parliamentary information commission and the prices applied before the liberalization of the sector by the Benkirane government and, finally, when he tried to lift the accusation of conflicts of interest and sweeten the profits of large distribution companies that buy refined products at high prices on the international market.
5. The Front considers that the amendments proposed by the government to the law on the Competition Council and to the law on freedom of prices and competition are not sufficiently convincing to justify the suspension of the work of the said Council in the file hydrocarbons.
The Front is surprised to see that article 10 of the law on the Competition Council is not the subject of any amendment and that the appointment of approximately 80% of the members of this Council is still subject to a decision of the government, contrary to what is practiced in other councils, which is likely to reinforce the subordination of the Council to the Executive and to deepen conflicts of interest and gender confusion.
Finally, it is worth noting the extension of the chairman’s powers in the event of exceptional decisions, the possibility of negotiating transactional fines, the muzzling of Board members by the confidentiality of deliberations and the threat of criminal penalties in the event of the disclosure of secrets deliberations and attempts to deprive the public of access to the work and conclusions of the Council.