– ICSID awards less than 6% of the amount claimed by Corral Holding.
– Morocco is studying all possibilities, including an appeal for annulment before the ICSID.
Washington – The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rejected, on Monday, most of the claims of the Corral Morocco Holding group, estimated at $2.7 billion, granting it only compensation of $150 million, or less than 6% of the amount that the said group had claimed, declared, to MAP-Washington, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Ms. Nadia Fettah, specifying that Morocco, which has taken note of this decision, is studying all possibilities including the appeal for annulment before the ICSID, in the context of the Samir case.
During this process before the ICSID, the Minister stressed, Morocco defended its position by emphasizing all the means it implemented for the benefit of Samir, and the significant resources it mobilized as well as the steps taken by the public authorities since 2002, to preserve and develop the refinery’s activity, whose financial situation has never been able to be redressed by its reference shareholder (Corral Morocco Holdings).
Ms. Nadia Fettah further specified that “the Kingdom nevertheless continues to assume its responsibilities and rights, vis-à-vis its partners and international bodies, in full respect of international and bilateral conventions.”
“We remain convinced that Morocco has always had a fair position towards the Corral group,” observed the minister, noting that the Kingdom is convinced of having honored all of its contractual commitments to the main shareholder of the Mohammedia refinery.
She noted that in the face of chronic financial and management difficulties due to the practices of the main shareholder, who did not honour his contractual obligations, a recovery of the company could never be achieved.
Morocco, which has always considered the refinery as a strategic asset, has mobilized all the resources necessary for its proper functioning and development, she said. In this regard, an official from the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, visiting Washington, told MAP that a new project is under consideration to give new life to the Samir site in Mohammadia.
Ms. Nadia Fettah also recalled that Morocco boasts “a secure environment for investors and a business climate that offers them undeniable economic opportunities at the crossroads of high-potential markets”, stressing that the Kingdom “will spare no effort to ensure the development of the energy and petrochemical sector in Morocco while consolidating its leadership in renewable and future energies such as hydrogen”.
2024-09-10 09:28:26