Airline fares in and out of Morocco have come down a long way in the last year - that is if you are flying to European destinations. Flights to African destinations have remained extremely high. Hopefully that is going to change as far as Mauritania is concerned.
According to a spokesman for the Moroccan national airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM), he company will buy a 51 per cent stake in its Mauritanian counterpart, Air Mauritanie.
The decision came after Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou met with Mauritanian Transport Minister Ibrahima Demba Ba and airline managers in Rabat. A team of RAM executives is scheduled to fly to the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott around the start of next month to finalise terms of the deal and take over management of the airline.
On the diplomatic front this move is aimed at developing economic exchanges between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and promoting development of air transport between the two countries.
LA SAMIR GETS 70 USD
In other economic news, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) lent "La SAMIR" oil refinery USD 70Mn to import crude oil and by-products.
In February 2005, The IDB granted a loan of USD 59,94 millions to La SAMIR to finance its rehabilitation and renovation program. The loan was to chiefly reinforce security and environment protection via the construction of a new station for effluent treatment, a power station for electricity distribution and a unit for water demineralisation.
It was also destined for equipping production units with control and detection systems.
SAMIR is one of the largest companies operating in Morocco and owns the only oil refinery facilities in Morocco supplying to the domestic market. Formerly a state-run company, SAMIR was privatized in 1997, at which time a major shareholding was taken by CORRAL Holding, who also has refining interests in Sweden.
SAMIR had operated a topping refinery since the first crude unit was installed in 1959. Since then, two more crude units, a vacuum unit and a lubes train have been installed to bring the refinery up to its current 6.25 million tons per annum (mtpa) crude capacity.
The SAMIR renovation is to increase capacity to 8.25 mtpa and install conversion units to deliver a higher-value product slate, in line with Morocco’s changing market demand.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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