Casablanca makes common marine works the first-phase schedule test

What changed

ONEE records the November 2023 PPP, construction commencement on 10 June 2024 and the two-stage delivery structure, and its year-end 2025 profile keeps the plant under construction. ACCIONA's financing release identifies the MAD 6.5 billion PPP, the Al Baidaa Desalination Company ownership split, 300 million m3/year of final production, and a 27-year construction and O&M role. Its Q1 2026 statement and June 2026 integrated report confirm continued contractor execution but do not quantify marine progress. A current project-team profile states that the first phase includes common marine works, tunnelling, and electrical systems, with first-phase completion targeted for February 2027 and second-phase completion for August 2028. ACCIONA's project profile gives 559,000 m3/day in the first stage and 279,500 m3/day in the second. NOVEC's marine study confirms that bathymetry, geology, seawater quality, waves, and currents form part of the technical basis. Moroccan project reporting identifies two approximately 1.85 km seawater-intake lines and an approximately 2.5 km discharge outfall. Completed tunnels, accepted intake-outfall systems, first water and commercial operation have not been confirmed.

Why it matters

Shared intake, discharge, tunnel, and electrical assets concentrate schedule risk: a late or partially accepted interface can hold back both the first operating block and the later 100 million m3/year expansion. Suppliers and project watchers should therefore follow tunnel and shaft completion, intake-outfall integration, energisation, testing, and owner acceptance as one sequence.