ECOWAS okays Nigeria-Morocco gap pipeline project

West African leaders have approved the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP), signing the agreement during the ECOWAS summit held on Sunday in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The ambitious project will see a gas pipeline stretching about 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) from Nigeria to Morocco, passing through 13 countries along Africa’s Atlantic coastline.

Once completed, the pipeline will transport natural gas from Nigeria to Morocco, where it will connect with the existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline.

“We have already signed the West Africa-Morocco gas pipeline,” said ECOWAS chair Julius Maada Bio said. “Don’t be surprised when the gas comes your way.”

Morocco’s state hydrocarbons agency ONHYM and Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC said in a statement 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.

The project, first proposed during Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s visit to Abuja in 2016, is estimated to cost around $27 billion.

Its revival has been driven in part by Algeria’s 2022 decision to stop supplying gas to Spain via Morocco after diplomatic ties between Algiers and Rabat broke down.

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