Morocco’s “Offre Maroc” green hydrogen push is moving beyond signalling and into execution mechanics. In recent reporting around the programme’s steering-committee work chaired by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, the state has validated, and in some cases signed, preliminary land reservation agreements that open the door to the next phase of technical and bankability work for large integrated projects in the southern regions. The package under discussion is material: six projects led by five investor groups, with combined investment estimated at MAD 319bn (roughly $31–35bn, depending on the exchange rate used in reporting).
Most external commentary still anchors on exports: green molecules shipped to Europe in the form of hydrogen derivatives. That is the obvious storyline. But the more consequential industrial angle may be domestic, and it sits squarely in fertilisers.
The real lever: local green ammonia
The Offre Maroc is structured specifically for integrated projects across the full value chain, from renewable power and electrolysis through to conversion into ammonia, methanol and synthetic fuels, plus associated logistics. That design choice matters because ammonia is not just an “export derivative”; it is a strategic feedstock for industry.
For Morocco’s phosphate-driven fertiliser sector, the ability to secure locally produced, low-carbon ammonia would reshape the risk profile of the value chain. Imported grey ammonia exposes producers to external gas-linked volatility, freight, and supply-chain disruption. Green hydrogen at scale offers a path to internalise part of that dependency, reduce the embedded carbon footprint of phosphate-based fertilisers, and strengthen competitiveness as carbon accounting and border measures tighten in premium markets.
In practical terms, a domestic green ammonia pathway is what turns “hydrogen ambition” into industrial leverage, enabling progressively lower-carbon MAP, DAP and NPK production, while building optionality for future nitrogen products where economics and policy align.
Execution is the market test
The programme now enters the phase where markets will judge it on delivery rather than narrative. The critical constraints are well known: synchronised build-out of grid connections, port capacity and water (including desalination), plus bankable offtake that can carry early cost premiums. This sequencing challenge is explicitly reflected in coverage referencing the government’s emphasis on shared infrastructure and coordination as projects move forward.
A closing thought: Morocco’s “integration advantage” could deepen
History also offers a useful lens. Morocco’s fertiliser industry has already demonstrated an ability to reinvent itself through long-cycle capital and industrial execution. OCP, for example, has publicly launched a $13bn green investment strategy for 2023–2027, combining capacity growth with renewables, water autonomy and decarbonisation ambitions.
Against that backdrop, domestic green ammonia increasingly looks like a question of timing and economics rather than feasibility alone—especially as integrated hydrogen-to-ammonia architectures mature.
And Morocco’s integration story could go further still. The country also hosts advanced potash development plans, most prominently Emmerson’s Khemisset project, which reports a JORC resource of 537Mt. If potash projects progress into commercial output, Morocco’s strategic positioning could shift toward a rarer end-state: a country with credible pathways across all three primary nutrients: N, P and K (nitrogen via green ammonia, phosphate via OCP’s base, and potash via domestic mining).
Taken together, green hydrogen is not a side story to Morocco’s fertiliser sector. It is emerging as one of its most consequential future inputs, reshaping feedstock security, carbon competitiveness, and long-term industrial sovereignty.
By Dr Mounir Halim
CEO - AFRIQOM
Mounir Halim - CEO, AFRIQOM
