Tethys Oil Secures Drilling Rig For Exploration Well Onshore Morocco

Tethys Oil Secures Drilling Rig For Exploration Well Onshore Morocco

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A drilling rig contract for the drilling of an exploration well on the Bouanane licence onshore Morocco has been entered into by the operator Dana Petroleum plc on behalf of the partner group including Tethys Oil and Eastern Petroleum.The drilling rig, owned by Aladdin Middle East Ltd - Tethys' partner in Turkey - is an American built 2,000 horsepower model with a depth capacity of 5,000 meters. The rig is currently being mobilized from Turkey to Morocco. It will first drill a well for another operator in Morocco before being mobilized to Bouanane to drill the Tafejjart-1 exploration well.Tethys has a 12.5 per cent interest in the Bouanane licence and is carried for the first MUSD 12 of drilling cost."The Tafejjart-1 well offers an excellent risk reward for Tethys, with no cost for us up until 12 million dollars of drilling cost and a very large upside if the well encounters natural gas", comments Tethys' Managing Director Magnus Nordin.Dana is the operator of the Bouanane licence holding 50 per cent interest, with Tethys and Eastern holding 12.5 per cent each. The Moroccan state oil and mining company, ONHYM, has a carried 25 per cent interest.

Source: www.oilvoice.com

Morocco's El Moutawakel wins senior IOC post

Morocco's El Moutawakel wins senior IOC post

By Karolos Grohmann
BEIJING (Reuters) - Moroccan Olympic gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel has become the first Muslim woman elected to the IOC's powerful executive board.
El Moutawakel won her seat unopposed on Thursday after Puerto Rican Richard Carrion and Britain's Craig Reedie withdrew from running against her to ensure there was one woman on the IOC executive Board. She had 85 votes in favor and 12 against from 97 valid votes.
"I feel very honored to be a member of this big family," El Moutawakel told the session after her election. "Thank you very much for the trust you are putting in me."
IOC Vice President Gunilla Lindberg's term ended on Wednesday and the board would have had no woman members had El Moutawakel not been elected.
The 15-member board is responsible for setting the Olympic agenda. It meets four times a year and can ban athletes from Games for doping offences.
The IOC said in 1996 it would aim for a 20 percent share of women in its overall membership but is still way off that target with only 16 women out of 110 members.
The U.S-educated El Moutawakel, who won Olympic gold in the 400 meters hurdles in 1984, joined the IOC in 1998, and has been a member of various commissions.
Carrion, who works closely with IOC President Jacques Rogge in broadcast rights negotiations, later defeated Reedie in a run-off, retaining his seat on the board with a 56-39 win.

CIMENTS FRANCAIS: THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXAMINES RESULTS AS OF JUNE 30, 2008

CIMENTS FRANCAIS: THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXAMINES RESULTS AS OF JUNE 30, 2008

Those are some parts of the annual Ciments Francais Results>

''Net profit from continuing operations decreased by 14.2% at 237 million euros with the share attributable to equity holders of the parent amounting to 181 million euros (-20.1%), while the share attributable to minorities (essentially Egypt and Morocco) grew by 12.5% at 56 million euros''.

''In the cement & clinker sector, as in the first quarter, the decrease in sales volumes mainly related to the markets of the mature countries (Spain, Greece and North America in particular). Emerging countries business activity was characterized by rising sales on all domestic markets (mostly India, Morocco and Bulgaria), with the exception of Kazakhstan, where further to the suspension of operating permits by local authorities in December 2007, operations resumed only in April''.

''In the aggregates sector, on a comparable scope, sales volumes dropped, due to the significant slackening in activity in Spain, despite a stable French market and an uptrend in the other countries, namely Belgium, Greece and Morocco.As for ready-mixed concrete, on a comparable scope, the decrease reported in Western Europe (due to sharp declines in Spain and Greece) resulted in a drop in Group total sales, despite the growth in Egypt and Morocco.''

''Net profit from continuing operations decreased by 14.2% at 237 million euros with the share attributable to equity holders of the parent amounting to 181 million euros (-20.1%), while the share attributable to minorities (essentially Morocco) grew by 12.5% at 56 million euros.''

Copyright HuginThe appendixes relating to the press release are available on: http://www.hugingroup.com/documents_ir/PJ/CO/2008/141185_88_F3AM_RESULTATST22008FINALGB.pdf

Morocco to open market to tender wheat import

Rabat, July 31 - Morocco will open, as of August 16, the market to tender wheat import, by lifting customs duties in a bid to maintain a normal supply of this product on the national market, Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry said on Thursday.
According to a press release of the ministry, the government has decided to allow stock agencies to sell the wheat collected between August 16 and 31 to the inter-professional National Office of Cereals and Leguminous (ONICL) at a benchmark price of Mad 300/quintal all charges included.
The government will also take charge of the transport costs of tender wheat from these agencies to the industrial mills, and will offer a warehousing allowance for cereals until they are sold out, the same source added.
Up to July 22, Morocco has yielded 7.6 mln quintals of tender wheat, i.e. a 27% drop as compared to the five-year average, reads the document, noting that the available domestic stocks of wheat are estimated to more than 9 mln quintals, which can cover the needs of industrial mills for about 3 months.
These measures come to strengthen previous arrangements that aim to make up to the soaring rise in prices of footstuffs worldwide.

Morocco's success is key for region

The success of projects in Morocco will have a domino effect across the entire North African region.

source:

As France's President Nicolas Sarkozy looks south and east to the Maghreb and the Levant for his Union for the Mediterranean, Gulf-based investors are mirroring the move by looking north and west.
Ever-closer links with Europe mean that the entire North African coast is now fertile ground for investment. Sensing the opportunity, developers from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Bahrain have launched billions of dollars worth of real estate projects in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco over the past three years.
Although all these markets have potential, it is Morocco that offers the most immediate opportunities.
Located just 14 kilometres from Spain, and with strong cultural links to France, Morocco is the closest the Arab world gets to Europe.
For Gulf investors, it offers a unique opportunity to invest in a stable, mature market that still has strong growth potential, while remaining in the reassuring environment of an Islamic Arab country. The hope is that these factors will transform the country into one of the leading investment destinations for both the Middle East and Europe.
This is important for its neighbouring countries too. If the planned projects in Morocco prove to be commercially successful, there will be a domino effect across North Africa. Equally, if the projects fail, the region will continue to lag behind the Gulf as the region's project capital.
Author: Colin Foreman. Senior Gulf Correspondent
Dubai

International Monetary Fund Praises Morocco's Economic Performance and Reforms; Continued Growth Anticipated

Last update: 5:20 p.m. EDT July 31, 2008

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- IMF Managing Director calls Morocco "a pillar of development in the region"
In a statement released this morning, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called Morocco "a pillar of development in the region" and congratulated King Mohammed VI and the Central Bank on Morocco's continued strong economic progress and effective management of monetary policy.
In spite of an increasingly challenging global economic climate, Morocco experienced nonagricultural GDP growth of 6.6 percent in 2007, and the IMF expects continued nonagricultural expansion of the Moroccan economy.
In a report issued earlier this week, the IMF noted that Morocco's financial sector is "sound and resilient to shocks," and that the "remarkable fiscal consolidation efforts of recent years" have allowed the Moroccan economy to absorb the impact of difficult international economic conditions and increasing global prices for essential commodities such as petroleum and energy.
"The IMF's report highlights the ambitious and multi-faceted economic reforms that have been in place for years now in Morocco," said Ambassador Aziz Mekouar, Morocco's ambassador to the US, during a press conference on Wednesday. "The results of these reforms are the much needed economic growth and stability which benefit all segments of Moroccan society." Ambassador Mekouar noted that among the indicators of Morocco's economic progress are its Free Trade Agreements with key economic partners, including the United States, which open tariff-free Moroccan goods to a market of over 1 billion people worldwide.
International economic experts recognize that Morocco's exemplary economic performance is beneficial not only to Moroccans, but also for the nearly 90 million people who live in North Africa, a region also known as the Maghreb.
"Though the five countries of the Maghreb face considerable economic challenges, there is great potential for substantial economic progress and prosperity throughout the Maghreb region," Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, former US Ambassador to the EU and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration, told reporters during the press conference. "Morocco stands out as a model of economic reform for the region and for other developing countries." Ambassador Eizenstat was the leading advocate of the US-North Africa Economic Partnership, which was launched in 1999 and is more commonly referred to as the "Eizenstat Initiative."
"Morocco stands out as a model of economic reform for the region and for other developing countries. The kind of economic progress that Morocco has made, and which the rest of the Maghreb has the potential to accomplish, is the best antidote to the new threat of terrorism in the region," Ambassador Eizenstat said.
In what are known as Article IV consultations, the IMF annually evaluates and reports on its member countries' economic progress. An IMF mission traveled to Morocco in May of this year and met with senior government officials, the Central Bank, and representatives from parliament, the private sector, and labor unions. The official IMF summary of the report is available at http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2008/pn0891.htm.
The Moroccan American Trade and Investment Center (MATIC) was established under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI as a vehicle to promote the Moroccan-US FTA. MATIC is an American based non-profit trade association that assists the country of Morocco in its quest to encourage economic growth and stability through the promotion of its private sector.

source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/international-monetary-fund-praises-moroccos/story.aspx?guid=%7B76C2DD9F-59CC-4750-A85E-2206E03BE00A%7D&dist=hppr