Site location and Pipeline routing optimization for Future natural gas importing terminal project in Morocco

Abstract

In order to achieve sustainable supply combustible development, Morocco is projecting to invest in its first natural gas importing and storage capacity by 2030. This future project should be designed for electric power plants and other sectors using energy. It is not worthy that up today most of the existing power plants in Morocco are depending on coal in their electricity production, this is in contrast with the recent government environmental commitments. Therefore, the aim of this article is to develop a research analysis related to the natural gas future project by introducing the main key aspects of choosing a site location and proposing an optimum routing for pipelines based on mathematic algorithms. It is proved that the port of Jorf Lasfar is a suitable importing terminal choice for Morocco. Afterwards, a pipeline routing will be proposed given the natural gas potential consumers. Thereby, the optimum pipeline routing starting from the importing terminal and linking the furthest consuming point is estimated at 490 Km.