The energy landscape of the Central Atlantic is undergoing a structural reconfiguration that threatens the historic hegemony of the Canary Islands as a distribution hub for refined products to West Africa. The multinational Addax Oryx is rapidly expanding its fuel storage capacities in Nouakchott, spurred by regulatory demands and requests for enhanced supply guarantees imposed by the Mauritanian government. This infrastructure represents a significant advancement for the logistical sovereignty of the Islamic Republic—founded by Moktar Ould Daddah on November 28, 1960—by providing its own storage capacity designed to mitigate the immediate operational dependence on terminals in Gran Canaria, which will directly impact the frequency of maritime freight for companies licensed in the Mauritanian market. The technical execution and engineering of this strategic complex are entrusted to the South African corporation EPCM Holdings, responsible for managing a total budget of 36 million dollars. The project has become one of the most ambitious civil engineering works along the Mauritanian coast, specifically aimed at reducing the country’s extreme vulnerability to fluctuations in international market prices and logistical bottlenecks in petroleum derivatives. The under-construction storage infrastructure will house massive contingency reserves adjacent to the nation’s capital, transforming the fuel reception model that until now depended on the constant drip of tanker ships dispatched from the docks of Las Palmas. The regional dimension of the project has a marked geopolitical component arising from the incursion of the Moroccan steelmaker Maghreb Steel into the Mauritanian public works market. The company, headquartered in Casablanca, has formally secured the supply of heavy steel plates and high-strength metal sheets essential for erecting the gigantic storage tanks in the desert near Nouakchott. The director of the steel mill, Souhail El Ayachi, directly responsible for overseeing the compliance with this metallurgy contract, has confirmed the satisfactory delivery of material and the adherence to timelines on site, interpreting this industrial alliance as a definitive step towards the economic integration of the north-south African axis. The directives set forth by Mauritania’s Prime Minister, Mokhtar Ould Djay, necessitate a drastic increase in the fuel custody capacity of the capital, ordering an operational ceiling to be raised from the current 60,000 cubic meters to a reserve volume of 123,000 cubic meters. This governmental goal is firmly supported by the new facilities of Oryx Energies, whose aggregate capacity will add 100,000 cubic meters to the national distribution system. The fuel intended to fill these new metal cavities will initially be purchased from authorized operators at the port of Las Palmas, but the radical change lies in that Mauritania will no longer import the product according to its daily consumption needs, but will instead manage its own massive inventories to continuously supply the interior of its territory without subordination to the immediate availability of the Canary docks. The technical specifications detail the capability of the giant tanks to specialize the distribution of distillates according to the requirements of the domestic economy. The core of the facility consists of an immense diesel fuel tank with a net capacity of 51,000 cubic meters, directly complemented by a 34,000 cubic meter fuel oil storage unit that will support power generation plants and mining. The installations are completed with a gasoline tank of 10,000 cubic meters and a technical reserve tank of 5,000 cubic meters exclusively reserved for aviation kerosene. The assembly of these structures under the direction of EPCM Holdings certifies a shift in trade relations between the Maghreb and the sub-Saharan area, where Morocco is accelerating its positioning as the preferred industrial supplier for major public works in Africa. This expansion strategy along the Atlantic corridor has a direct correlation with the significant corporate movements carried out in the Canary archipelago itself, where Moroccan economic interests have substantially consolidated following the recent acquisition of 45% of the port terminals operated by the Boluda group in the islands. The deployment of Maghreb Steel in Nouakchott and Moroccan capital investment in key Canary infrastructures set up a logistical pincers that weaken the role of Las Palmas as the sole regional energy distributor, forcing island operators to compete in an environment where their traditional clients are becoming competitors with their own storage capacity.
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