Nigerian government sign gas pipeline agreement with Morocco, ECOWAS
The Nigerian government has signed another agreement with Morocco and ECOWAS for a 5,600-kilometre gas pipeline.
What’s the role of ECOWAS in this?
The pipeline will pass through 15 West African countries to transport gas from Nigeria to Morocco and Europe. When completed, the pipeline (NMGP) is expected to supply about three billion standard cubic feet of gas per day from Nigeria to countries in the West African region and Morocco, where it will be connected to the Maghreb European Pipeline for supply to Europe. Though promising, there’s still no certainty that the project will move beyond this agreement stage.
Why not?
This isn’t the first agreement Nigeria has signed for this project, nor the first time it has signed agreements with a North African country to get gas to Europe. In July, Nigeria signed an Algerian pipeline agreement, a plan that came up 40 years ago. The Nigeria-Morocco pipeline (proposed to take 25 years) has also been in the planning stages since the first agreement in 2016.
The renewed interest in Nigeria’s grossly under-utilised gas reserves is due to Europe’s gas shortages resulting from the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Nigeria must leverage this interest to get funding for the projects. Successful completion would mean more export revenue for the country and increased domestic gas utilisation for cooking, electricity, and even transportation with gas-powered vehicles.
