Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline: First green light from Abuja

The ambitious project to build a gas pipeline between Nigeria and Morocco to supply West Africa and Europe with Nigerian gas has received a first green light from Abuja, Nigeria's oil minister announced Wednesday. The mega-project was still "at the initial engineering design stage," which should determine its cost, among other things. "It is at this point that we will talk about financing," said Timipre Sylva.

This pipeline would be an extension of a gas pipeline that has been transporting gas from southern Nigeria to Benin, Ghana and Togo since 2010. "This pipeline must pass through 15 West African countries to Morocco, and from Morocco to Spain and Europe," said the minister.

Four years ago, King Mohammed VI and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had agreed on a mega-project to transport gas along the Atlantic coast, over 3,000 km. An agreement between the two countries was first signed in 2016. The Nigerian Minister of Petroleum announced that the federal government had given "its consent for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to enter into an agreement with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the construction" of this gas pipeline.