The Spanish autonomous territory has long been locked in negotiations with Rabat over unresolved maritime boundaries. [Getty]
A leading political force in the Canary Islands is raising concerns over a new offshore energy agreement between Morocco and Israel, fearing its impact on disputed waters near the Spanish archipelago.
On 12 March, José Miguel Barragán, spokesperson for the Nationalist Group (CC) Parliamentary group, part of the governing coalition in the Canary Islands, warned that Morocco’s exploration deal with Israel’s NewMed Energy could further complicate ongoing maritime disputes, reported Spanish news agency EFE.
The agreement, first signed in 2022 in the wake of Morocco’s normalisation with Israel, grants an eight-year licence for oil and gas exploration in the Boujdour Atlantique block—an offshore area located in Western Sahara, a disputed region Morocco claims as its own. The US, France, Israel and several Arab and African countries support Morocco’s claim against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
NewMed Energy, which operates the Leviathan gas field off the coasts of Israel and Palestine, has partnered with Morocco’s Adarco Energy to spearhead the project.
In January, Eviatar Arviv, NewMed’s managing director of new ventures, stated after a visit to Rabat that “the Boujdour Atlantique project, where we are honoured to act as the operator, is progressing smoothly and according to schedule.”
The agreements, however, still require official approval from Morocco’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Finance.
Nonetheless, according to Moroccan media outlet Le Desk, Minister Leila Benali recently granted the green light for NewMed and Adarco to operate in the area alongside Morocco’s state-owned National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).
The licence covers 17 offshore permits stretching from Cape Boujdour to Dakhla. The Moroccan government has yet to confirm the approval.
Under the terms of the deal, NewMed and Adarco each hold a 37.5 percent stake in the Boujdour Atlantique licence, while ONHYM retains the remaining 25 percent.
Within 30 months of the licence being officially granted, the companies plan to conduct geological and geophysical analyses to assess the area’s potential.
For the Canary Islands, however, Morocco‘s drive to tap into offshore hydrocarbon resources raises broader concerns.
The Spanish autonomous territory has long been locked in negotiations with Rabat over unresolved maritime boundaries, particularly due to overlapping Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), both Morocco and Spain are entitled to a 200-nautical-mile EEZ, but the Canary Islands’ proximity to Morocco’s coast—its closest point is about 95 km (59 miles) from the coast of Morocco—has resulted in contested waters.
The situation is further complicated by Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara, whose waters are also in dispute.
While both Morocco and the Polisario Front claim sovereignty over the region, the UN recognises neither and instead pushes for a political solution, primarily through an autonomy plan Rabat proposed in 2007.
Madrid, the former coloniser of the territory, shifted its neutral stance on the conflict in 2022 and supported the Moroccan autonomy plan, though it still does not recognise Rabat’s sovereignty over the region.
In 2020, Rabat, in diplomatic dispute with Madrid at the time, unilaterally passed legislation defining its maritime boundaries, extending its claims into waters near the Canary Islands, triggering tensions with Madrid.
The region is rich in untapped resources, including hydrocarbons and rare minerals found in the Tropic Seamount, making any maritime delineation a high-stakes matter.
The Canarian Nationalist Group has called for the urgent resumption of negotiations between Spain and Morocco to determine the median line of territorial waters.
Spain and Morocco, alongside Canary Islands representatives, have engaged in discussions on the matter, but progress has been slow, as a final agreement on the maritime border ultimately hinges on resolving the Western Sahara issue—a dispute stuck in diplomatic deadlock at the UN for decades.
