Morocco and Nigeria announced the huge project in 2016 to connect Nigeria’s natural gas wells to Morocco through several countries, during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria, where the project was initialed, and in 2018 the project entered a new phase with the signing of bilateral cooperation agreements, followed by another phase in 2022. The giant gas pipeline is an “African dream” between Morocco and Nigeria:

The titanic project of West and North Africa

Does morocco have oil and gas? The giant gas pipeline is an “African dream” between Morocco and Nigeria: Announced several months ago, this Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project will run along the West African coast from Nigeria, through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania to end in Morocco.

In the long term, said the statement, it will be connected to the Maghreb Europe Pipeline (abandoned by Algeria since November 2021) and the European gas network. It will also supply the landlocked states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The impact of this project is very important because it will ensure the supply of electricity to the West African area, and in the long term the export of natural gas as fuel in Europe.

The project is 6,000 km long and is expected to cost $25 billion. Several stakeholders are expected to provide the financing.

OPEC’s support for the Moroccan-Nigerian pipeline is also thought to be an indication of at least Gulf support and backing. Last April, the project received funding from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ International Development Fund in the amount of $14 million to finance the second part of the pre-final engineering studies that determined the map and route of the pipeline’s overland passage (and offshore), and to study the potential environmental, natural, social and economic implications on aquatic populations and organisms. The project had previously received funding from the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah for the Mediterranean and Spain.

Nigeria, Morocco and ECOWAS agree to build a 6000 km gas pipeline

The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline mega-project, which will cross 15 West African countries, is beginning to take shape.

A Memorandum of Understanding confirming the realization of this project was signed on September 15 in Rabat.

The signing ceremony was attended by the representative of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Sédiko Douka, the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitization of Nigeria, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, the CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited “NNPC” and the Director General of the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) of Morocco, Amina Benkhadra.

According to a joint statement issued at the end of the signing ceremony, this Memorandum of Understanding “confirms the commitment of ECOWAS and all the countries crossed by the pipeline to contribute to the feasibility, technical studies, mobilization of resources and implementation of this important project, which, once completed, will provide gas to all West African countries and will also allow a new export route to Europe.

“This strategic project will contribute to the improvement of the standard of living of the populations, the integration of the economies of the region, the mitigation of desertification through a sustainable and reliable gas supply through the reduction or elimination of gas flaring among other effects,” said the same source. The giant gas pipeline is an “African dream” between Morocco and Nigeria.

Nigeria’s President calls on UK and EU countries to invest in Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project to Europe.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the Nigerian president stressed the need for a long-term partnership between Nigeria and the UK and the European Union on green energy policy.

“We need a long-term partnership, not inconsistencies and contradictions in the UK and EU green energy policy,” he said.

“For a change, the UK and EU countries should thus invest in our pipeline project to bring Nigerian gas – the largest reserves in Africa – via Morocco, to Europe.”

Muhammadu Buhari expressed the hope that, once completed, the Moroccan-Nigeria the Moroccan-Nigerian pipeline project would help solve the gas gas supply crisis in Europe. He also recalled that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) had concluded (in early June) (early June), in record time, an agreement with the Economic Community of Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the construction of the construction of the said pipeline.

This project, which seemed to some to be pharaonic and unrealistic, has never been so close to realization. This is evidenced by progress on the technical aspects, but also the political mobilization of Morocco and Nigeria.

For beyond its purely energy dimension, it is shown as a model of what could be a successful African economic integration.

From Rabat, on June 20, the President of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) Uche Orgi said that “this dream (gas pipeline), which is gradually becoming a reality, is an excellent example of what African countries must do together to prepare for a African countries must accomplish together to prepare a better future for their future for their populations”.

Nigerians call on new president to speed up gas pipeline with Morocco

At a time when the Nigerian-Moroccan gas pipeline project is progressing at a steady pace to supply Europe with gas, several Nigerian engineers have called on the new president to accelerate the pace of the project, “given its economic benefits” to the citizens.

The Nigerian engineer, specializing in energy and minerals, Sendai Adebayo Babalola, expressed, in comments reported by the Nigerian newspaper “The New Telegraph”, his hope to achieve a comprehensive development of the country through the pipeline, stressing that “the federal government must work to protect this project to achieve African integration.

On his part, the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Malam Milli Kyari, said the project will create wealth and improve the standard of living, and explained that it aims to liquefy natural gas resources in Nigeria, thus generating additional revenue for the country, diversifying the methods of exporting gas and eliminating Burn it.

The project which goes beyond gas supply

According to the same spokesman, the relentless and motivating efforts of the Nigerian government and the Kingdom of Morocco resulted in the signing of the MoU, which the federal government described as “the most important”, saying it “will benefit the country in terms of wealth and job creation.

Mallam Milli Kyari continued that the project will benefit the participating countries, adding, “Our country will benefit immeasurably from the implementation of the project which goes beyond gas supply to revitalize the countries along the way. Some of the benefits include wealth creation, improved living standards, integration of economies in the region, mitigation of desertification and other benefits that will come from the reduction of carbon emissions.

In the same context, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timiber Silva, said that Russia has expressed interest in investing in the project, adding that “there are many other players who are also interested in doing so,” and that “the pipeline will carry Nigerian gas through many countries in Africa,” and also to the far reaches of the African continent, where the country can access the European market.

The giant gas pipeline is an “African dream” between Morocco and Nigeria

Morocco and Nigeria announced the huge project in 2016 to connect Nigeria’s natural gas wells to Morocco through several countries, during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria, where the project was initialed, and in 2018 the project entered a new phase with the signing of bilateral cooperation agreements, followed by another phase in 2022.

Many African countries with primary resources such as energy and minerals suffer from low incomes and lagging development, due to dependence on exports of raw materials without much added value, which is the economic school established by the former colonizer, preventing them from having diversified economies. This prevents them from having diversified economies, like their European counterparts with natural resources, weak for example due to the lack of industrialization. This explains its concentration on a single source of national income, and is one of the causes of social backwardness and weak economic governance, which increases external dependence, in addition to exploiting part of the energy revenues to buy weapons, in the border wars left by colonialism.

British and American companies, including Shell and Chevron, years ago extended a gas pipeline from Nigeria to neighbouring countries such as Benin, Togo and Ghana, called the West African Gas Pipeline, in an effort to establish a regional gas market. However, the lack of infrastructure needed for international trade, such as ports, and the weakness of the region’s economies, prevented the development of the project, which was joined by four countries.

ECOWAS integration

Currently, the countries of the “Economic Community of West Africa” found in the pipeline between Nigeria and Morocco a huge opportunity to develop the gas pipeline project of old Africa, and integrate them together in a huge pipeline, which can transport 5 trillion cubic meters of gas stored in this pipeline regions of the jungles of Africa.

Although each side has its own economic and geostrategic calculations, the commercial and development benefits seem great for the entire region of West Atlantic Africa, which suffers from a severe shortage of electricity, which hinders the economic development of these countries, despite the natural potential and raw materials that abound.

So far, 13 countries of North and West Atlantic Africa have committed to extend this pipeline, which will be the largest gas carrier under the sea, with a depth of hundreds of meters in the Atlantic Ocean, to the Mediterranean Sea and Spain.

Europe’s future needs and rivalry in North Africa

But questions are emerging at a time when Brussels says it wants to free itself from fossil fuels in the medium term. “We have to count the cost when it (the pipeline) is finished. Will we still want to use gas, methane?”, asked recently in Rabat the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, stressing that Morocco has a strong potential in clean energy such as hydrogen, wind and solar.

The acceleration of cooperation between Rabat and Abuja coincides with the re-launch of the trans-Saharan gas pipeline (TSGP) to connect Nigeria to Algeria via Niger, at an estimated cost of between 12 and 18 billion euros. Last July, Algiers, Abuja and Niamey signed a memorandum of understanding to materialize this 4,128 km long gas pipeline, without setting a start-up date.

Launched in 2009, the project also aims to bring Nigerian gas to the European continent. Once it arrives in Algeria, it should be shipped there, in particular via the Transmed pipeline, which already links the Algerian fields to Italy via Tunisia. “The technical studies are underway,” said Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab in Algiers on 18 February.

New reality in Europe

Unlike before the crisis in Ukraine, the European Union is not harmonious in the energy position, as each country seeks an individual solution to its problems. Spain appeared among the first Europeans interested in the project, because the pipeline will reach its coast in any case, and this will give it European supremacy, similar to what happens in the field of liquefied gas, which is shipped from the U.S., the Gulf countries and Nigeria, and then pumped back into the European pipeline, or the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline to Morocco.

Since the outbreak of the war, Madrid has become more present in the supply of gas to Europe to face the cold winter, and this is part of its differences with Algeria, which preferred to go east and cooperate with the Italian company “Eni”. Spain has preferred to support politically the position of Morocco in the desert, and economically in the desert.