ECOWAS has signed in Freetown the intergovernmental agreement governing the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic African Gas Pipeline, a strategic project designed to carry Nigerian gas to Morocco and then on to Europe.
According to Reuters, estimated at $25 billion, this energy corridor is moving closer to realisation as it enters a new institutional and financial phase.
West African leaders on Sunday signed an agreement approving the construction of a gas pipeline linking Nigeria to Morocco at a summit of regional bloc ECOWAS in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown.
The 6,800-kilometer (3,700-mile) Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) will cross 13 countries along Africa’s Atlantic coast.
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.
The project, first proposed during Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s visit to Abuja in 2016, is estimated to cost around $27 billion.
ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray described the Nigeria-Morocco African Atlantic Gas Pipeline as one of West Africa’s most transformative projects during the 69th ECOWAS Summit in Sierra Leone.
He said the pipeline will strengthen regional integration by improving energy access, boosting energy security, supporting industrialization, creating jobs and deepening economic cooperation across West Africa.
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