- Mauritania wants to be an integrated hub for the export of energy and low-carbon iron industries by 2040.
- Currently, Mauritania is developing a 30 gigawatt project with CWP and a 10 gigawatt with Chariot. These two labour-intensive and expertise-intensive projects will generate growth of 10% by 2030 and reduce the unemployment rate by half.
Mauritania will soon be included in the group of oil and gas exporting countries. The entry into activity of the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim gas field shared with Senegal and the prospects for the Birallah field in exclusive Mauritanian territory follow a limited experience of oil production which, since the mid-2000s, has made it possible to train a certain number of executives . “Our country has gas resources estimated at 100 TCF,” said Mauritanian Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Mines, Abdessalam ould Mohamed Saleh, at the opening of the first edition of the “public-private dialogue” forum organized on September 29 by Financial Afrik and the company Meen & Meen. “These are resources that must be developed quickly and the challenge is significant,” added the Minister, high-level guest of a panel moderated by Hacena Mbeirik, CEO of Meen & Meen and which also included, on the speaker side, Alison Redford, International Legal Expert, lawyer by profession and strategic policy advisor focused on the energy and extractive industries sector worldwide, Lain Pickard, co-Founder and Managing Director of Strategia Worldwide (UK), Miles Scott- Brown, Founder-President of CIERA Group (Canada) and Alexandra Gazendam-Schulze, Director Europe at EPCM Holdings (South Africa).
In addition to these gas deposits, there are renewable energy resources in solar, wind and green hydrogen. This last resource, green hydrogen, is the “game changer”, a systemic energy source which can be the “oil of the future” in the Minister’s opinion.
Apart from Energy, Mauritania has until now been known for its iron deposits, with an export of 12 million tonnes of ore per year. For the Minister, the development of these different potentials must take into account the challenge of climate change and the long-standing challenge of poverty, by exporting hydrogen and green ammonia, which will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint both of the recipient countries and that, currently insignificant, of Mauritania.
Green hydrogen can also be used for the development of green steel. Clearly, Mauritania wants to be an integrated hub for the export of low-carbon energy and low-carbon iron industries by 2040. Gas will provide Mauritanians with low-cost energy and, combined to phosphate, can give the country a dominant position in fertilizers. “It will still be necessary, in the implementation, to build solid institutions, to have human resources, to acquire technology by choosing the right partners and, opines the minister, “to have a little luck” to transform all these potentialities. The chance factor is necessary, explained the minister, referring to the presence of the majors (Total, BP) and other groups (Cairn) in oil research.
Ending his remarks on local content, the minister considered that Mauritanian companies must have the ability to seize opportunities. By 2030 and 2040, Mauritania intends to be a major energy hub with access to clean and affordable energy for all its citizens. “It’s very ambitious, but ambition is fundamental to awakening people’s minds,” added the Minister before a panel made up of representatives of the main stakeholders in Mauritania in the field of energy, such as the vice-president country manager of BP, the vice-president country manager of Kosmos, the country manager Capricorne, the main directors of the minister (director general of hydrocarbons, adviser to the minister of energy transition, director of exploration production minister of l energy) and, on the investment facilitator side, the very dynamic Fatimetou Bellameche, director of the one-stop shop.
