Jorf Lasfar (Arabic for "Yellow Cliffs")[1] is a deepwater commercial port located on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.[2] In terms of the volume of product processed, as of 2004, it was considered the second most important port in Morocco (just after Casablanca).[3] It is home to a swiftly expanding industrial quarter,[4] which includes both major artificial fertilizer and petrochemical factories.[1] Its harbour is well equipped for the exportation of phosphate rock (transported from Gantour and Ouled Abdoun)[1] and various chemicals such as pure sulphur, ammonia, and sulphuric acid.[5] The city is home to the largest independent power station in the country—primarily funded by investments from the Swedish-Swiss company ABB Group and the American company CMS Energy—which was thought to be capable of creating a third of Morocco's total power output.[6] The investment, numbering $1.5 billion,[7] was the single largest foreign investment on Moroccan soil up until that point.[6]
In 2002 the Moroccan company Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP)—a state-owned phosphate exporter—started the building of an air qualityresearch laboratory at Jorf Lasfar.[8] It was announced in 2008 that the Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) was in the beginning stages of preparations for the construction of an oil refinery at Jorf Lasfar at a cost of $5 billion. With a proposed production capacity of 200, 000 barrels per day (bpd), the refinery is set to be completed in 2013.[9] In the beginning of 2010, OCP began accepting proposals for the building of a desalination plant.[10] The Moroccan government was interested in building the plant at least since 2001, when the United States Trade and Development Agency supplied $250,000 for preliminary studies.[11] The plant, which will provide drinking water for the city of El Jadida, has a planned capacity of 200,000 m3/d and was scheduled to be finished in 2012.[12] OCP also has plans for the erection of 4 additional phosphate fertilizer factories, specializing in diammonium and monoammonium phosphate.[13] Samsung and Daewoo were awarded the contracts for carrying out the construction of these 4 additional units (2 each)[14][15]
Since December, 2006 the management of the port has been transferred to Marsa Maroc, a state-owned public company responsible for the management of 9 ports in Morocco.
Cap Blanc du Nord, the lighthouse at the entrance of the port, is not known to be reliable, with its light occasionally going out.[16]
^"Morocco: Moroccan phosphates' lates JV in Indian link" (Nov/Dec 2000). Sulphur. Issue 271. p. 11. Accessed through ProQuest on April 9, 2011. "The complex, equipped with units for loading, uploading and storing sulphur, ammonia, sulphuric acid, and phosphates."
^"US Agency Finances Study on Sea Water Desalination" (Feb. 9, 2001). Middle East News Online. Accessed through ProQuest on April 10, 2011. "The U.S. Trade and Development Agency will donate Morocco $250,000 to finance a technical-economic study to build a sea water desalination unit..."
^"Morocco to boost phosphate mining capacity" (Nov. 29, 2010). Middle East North Africa Financial Network. Accessed through ProQuest on April 10, 2011.