El Gasoducto Marruecos-Nigeria recibe un mayor impulso
The Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline continues to take shape and receive even more support for its development as a key energy infrastructure on the African continent and at the global level in the face of the current uncertainty caused by the energy crisis, which has been exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The project is taking on a new economic, political and strategic dimension. In this context, five new tripartite Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed in Rabat concerning the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline initiative. These MoUs were signed respectively by Morocco and Nigeria, on the one hand, and Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana, on the other.
The Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) initialled the first MoU with the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC-Gambia). The second MoU was signed by ONHYM and NNPC with PETROGUIN-Guinea Bissau, while the third was sealed by ONHYM and NNPC with the Société Nationale des Petroleaux (SONAP) of the Republic of Guinea. The fourth MoU was signed by ONHYM and NNPC with the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone (PDSL), while the fifth MoU was initialled by the same Moroccan and Nigerian entities with the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC).
These agreements follow those signed with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 15 September 2022 and those initialled with Mauritania and Senegal on 15 October 2022. This demonstrates the strong commitment of all parties involved to this strategic project which, once completed, will supply gas to all West African countries and will also provide a new export route to Europe, as indicated in the joint communiqué issued by the signatories to the memoranda of understanding.
This energy infrastructure will lead to the creation of greater wealth in the area, greater economic cooperation between the countries involved and also greater protection of the environment thanks to the sustainable supply of gas, which will also help to combat desertification, the official statement said.
The pipeline will run along the West African coast from Nigeria through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania to Morocco, and will be connected to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline and the European gas network. The infrastructure will also supply the landlocked states of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
The director of Morocco's National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines, Amina Benkhadra, indicated that the signing of agreements with the companies of the countries concerned demonstrates their willingness to support this project and stressed "the need for these countries to unite in order to complete the project", which is still taking shape.
The final investment decision on the project will be taken next year, as Millie Kyari, head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, told Hespress, adding that "the investment required is estimated at 25 billion dollars.
Morocco has made an important commitment to this pipeline as a very interesting energy supply option for Europe, at a time when there are many doubts regarding the existing energy supply in the face of the war in Ukraine and the political and economic sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of the conflict in Ukrainian territory; And also at a time when there is a certain lack of confidence in Algeria as a stable supplier of gas to certain countries such as Spain, due to episodes such as the clash between Algeria and Spain over its support for Morocco on the Western Sahara issue, which led to Algerian protests and a threat to Algeria's compliance with various agreements.
Thanks to the new pipeline, Morocco will thus become a key transit point for gas from Nigeria, which could be an important source of supply for Europe.
