Gas pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco to help Europe cope with energy crisis

An investment decision on a $25 billion gas pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco that could supply fuel to Europe will be taken next year.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Co. and Morocco's National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines signed a memorandum of understanding last month that inched the long-gestating project closer to reality. The conduit is one of two such initiatives the NNPC is promoting in an effort to capitalise on European demand for new sources of gas after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, South African business news website Moneyweb reports.

Nigeria possesses Africa's largest proven gas reserves at about 200 trillion cubic feet, most of which is untapped, flared or re-injected into oil wells. The government says it wants to monetize much more of that resource, for domestic use and export, to replace crude as the country’s key commodity. Quadrupling gas production in the next four years is "very realisable", the report said.

The project will cost $20-25 billion to build and will be constructed in phases, who anticipates the first segment would take three years to finish and the others five years. Following a previous agreement in 2018, the Moroccan state agency MAP said the pipeline could take as long as 25 years to complete. Nigeria's gas exports are currently limited to shipments from Nigeria LNG Ltd., a joint venture between NNPC and international energy companies including Shell Plc and Eni SpA.
The NNPC has also revived a longstanding proposal for a separate transcontinental gas pipeline that would travel about 4,400 kilometres through the Sahara Desert to Algeria for onward transport to Europe.