Morocco looking to diversify energy Morocco is stepping up efforts to diversify its energy sources to decrease its dependence on imports, Energy, Mines and Water Minister Amina Benkhadra said. “Our new energy strategy is based on security of supply,” Benkhadra said yesterday in an interview in Marrakech, where she was attending a conference. “We have developed a very large mix of energy with oil, coal, gas and renewable energy.” Morocco, which imports around 95 percent of its energy, is planning to generate 2,000 megawatts of solar energy and a further 2,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2020, Benkhadra said. Algeria confronting AIDS epidemic Over 600 new cases of AIDS were recorded during the first nine months of 2010 in Algeria, where the disease has spread relentlessly since the outbreak began in 1985. “According to the likeliest estimates, there are between 21,000 and 30,000 people living with the virus,” Dr Skander Abdelkader Soufi announced November 24th at an Algiers forum on HIV/AIDS. “This gives us an idea of the danger and the work that remains to be done,” said Soufi, who runs AIDS prevention NGO ANIS. Tunisia Said to Be Seeking 25,000 Tons of Wheat Through Tender Tunisia is seeking 25,000 metric tons of hard wheat through a tender, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg. The deadline for bids is tomorrow, according to the document issued by Tunisia's state wheat buyer, Office des Cereales. The wheat is for shipment in January and February, the document shows. Officials at Office des Cereales in Tunis couldn't be immediately reached for comment. RWE Dea Considers Five-Year Investment in Libya RWE Dea AG expects to invest “hundreds” of millions of dollars to start commercial production of oil in Libya over the next five years, a company executive said. The North African country will announce in a few days that RWE will begin commercial production on eight discoveries, Uwe Balasus-Lange, the German company's general manager for new ventures, said today in an interview in Marrakech, Morocco. RWE is also looking at joint ventures and acquisitions for oil exploration opportunities in West Africa, Balasus-Lange said, declining to elaborate. Sudan Plans to Start Pumping Oil in Darfur, Petroleum Minister Deng Says Sudan is drilling its first oil well in the western region of Darfur, the site of a seven-year war, as part of its bid to boost output in sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest producer of crude, the petroleum minister said. “If things are going well, even by December next year, there's nothing to prevent us from having 600,000” barrels a day, Lual Deng said in an interview in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Sudan now pumps about 450,000 barrels a day, he said. Six new wells in Southern Kordofan state, which borders Darfur, are being connected today to Sudan's main export pipeline, adding 30,000 barrels per day, he said yesterday. BM
