• File photo,”We have already signed the West Africa-Morocco gas pipeline,” said ECOWAS outgoing chairman ,Julius Maada Bio, emphasising “Don’t be surprised when the gas comes your way.”
ECOWAS leaders on Sunday approved 2028 for the takeoff of the construction of a gas pipeline linking Nigeria to Morocco at a summit of regional bloc ECOWAS in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown.
The 6,000-kilometre (3,700-mile) Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) will cross 13 countries along Africa’s Atlantic coast, carrying Nigerian gas to Morocco before connecting to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline.
“We have already signed the West Africa-Morocco gas pipeline,” said ECOWAS outgoing chairman ,Julius Maada Bio, emphasising “Don’t be surprised when the gas comes your way.”
Morocco’s state hydrocarbons agency ONHYM and Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC said that the project aimed to link west Africa’s gas resources to major regional markets. It also hopes to “strengthen the integration of African energy markets and create a new development corridor linking” west Africa, the Sahel, Morocco and Europe.
The next steps include creating a “project company” based in Casablanca and a governing authority headquartered in Abuja before investors are brought on board and a final investment decision is taken, they added.
Construction is expected to begin in 2028, with the first gas deliveries targeted for 2031, said an ONHYM source.
