Morocco to establish a firm to run Nigeria’s gas pipeline

By Uthman Salami

The Government of Morocco is in the process of creating a public company to manage a project involving the supply of natural gas from Nigeria through a pipeline that will transit several African countries.

The Moroccan Energy Ministry has approved the creation of the company, which will also be in charge of developing domestic gas networks and infrastructure in the North African Arab country, Moroccan Arabic language daily Hespress said.

“Arrangements are under way to set up a company for gas network development in Morocco and to supervise the project to build a gasline from Nigeria, which is considered Africa’s largest gas infrastructure project,” the paper said, quoting a report by Morocco’s Economy and Finance Ministry.

The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline is a regional onshore and offshore project that is intended to deliver natural gas resources from Nigeria to 13 countries in the West and North Africa as an extension of the existing West Africa Gas Pipeline between Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana.

Starting from Nigeria, the 5,660 kilometers long pipeline will pass through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania, to end at Tangiers, a Moroccan port on the Strait of Gibraltar, with a possible extension to Europe through Spain.

Officials said in 2020 the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project is estimated to cost $25bn and it will be completed in stages over 25 years.