Moroccan hydrocarbon legislation distinguishes between oil and gas upstream activities including surveying, exploration and exploitation activities, either conducted onshore or offshore, and downstream activities relating to import, export, refining, collection, storage and distribution.

According to the annual report of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), in 2016 there was:

• a total investment of 1,117 billion dirhams by partners and 117,515 million dirhams by the ONHYM;

• the drilling of three new exploratory wells;

• the signing of two new petroleum agreements, one new survey contract, 14 amendments to petroleum agreements, three addenda to a survey contract, two protocol agreements for cooperation and two amendments to protocol agreements.

However, Morocco still remains underexplored in terms of oil exploration and the ongoing trend is to develop the attractiveness of its hydrocarbon opportunities, relating to either conventional or unconventional reserves. In recent years, the ONHYM has developed partnerships for the exploration of unconventional gas (shale gas), which led to new operation of production in 2016.