There is a chance that the French energy firm Engie is to develop a green hydrogen project in occupied Western Sahara.

On 28 October 2024, Engie and OCP signed a joint development agreement (JDA) in Rabat for four large-scale industrial projects. According to Engie’s press release, the partnership aims to: develop renewable energy capacity, including storage solutions; create on-site electrical infrastructure connected to new renewable sources; establish green ammonia production capacity and explore feasibility for other hydrogen derivatives; and develop water desalination capacity for agricultural use in OCP’s operating regions.

Reports suggest that one of the three potential sites for OCP-Engie's green hydrogen and ammonia production is the occupied territory, conditional on the completion of the Dakhla Atlantique deep-water port in 2029. 

In a letter sent on 14 February 2025, Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) has sought clarification from Engie. The company did not respond. Both the Swedish company Epiroc/Atlas Copco, the German company Continental and the Danish consultancy firm COWI are among the many that have withdrawn from partnerships with OCP in the territory. 

If the project is to be carried out in the occupied territory, it would not be Engie's first involvement.

In 2018, the Moroccan government accorded the firm a contract for a wind-powered desalination plant, after a tender process in which Engie had joined forces with Nareva, a Moroccan energy company that is wholly owned by the king of Morocco. As reported by Moroccan media, the facility is expected to mainly benefit the agri-industry near Dakhla: huge plantations that are either owned by French-Moroccan conglomerates or the King of Morocco himself, that produce the very products that were subject to above-mentioned EU Court rulings. 

Moroccan media last month provided the update that the 33/225 kV electrical transformer station of the wind farm, with an installed capacity of 60 MW, has just been completed.

Engie has defended its involvement in Morocco’s desalination project in the occupied territory by asserting that “all relevant stakeholders, including of course local populations, have been consulted.”

However, the EU Court of Justice has squashed that line of argumentation in its October 2024 rulings, annulling the EU-Morocco Trade and Fisheries Agreements in Western Sahara. The Court concluded that a consultation of the local population - who in majority are not Saharawis - cannot substitute the right of the Saharawi people to decide on the use of their land and its resources. 

Engie had retained consultancy firm Global Diligence to, as stated to WSRW, “consult all stakeholders involved”. Global Diligence will not respond any questions as to how it relates to the basic legal principles that are applicable to Western Sahara, as a non-self-governing territory without an administering power, whose people have a right to self-determination. Engie incorrectly refers to the territory as being located ”Morocco" through the project files. 

WSRW in October 2023, again, called on Engie to share the Global Diligence study for public scrutiny, as it seemingly fails to distinguish between Moroccan settlers and Saharawis.

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