ECOWAS approves Nigeria–Morocco gas pipeline project

West African leaders have agreed to the laying of the gas pipeline between Nigeria and Morocco, signing the deal at the ECOWAS summit in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sunday.

This mammoth project will entail the laying of the gas pipeline over a distance of 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) from Nigeria to Morocco via 13 countries located on the Atlantic Coast of Africa.

Upon completion, the pipeline will transport natural gas from Nigeria to Morocco, connecting there with the pre-existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline.

“We have already signed the West Africa-Morocco gas pipeline,” said ECOWAS chair Julius Maada Bio said. “Don’t be surprised when the gas comes your way.”

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, said an ONHYM source.

The project, first proposed during Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s visit to Abuja in 2016, is estimated to cost around $27 billion.

Its revival has been driven in part by Algeria’s 2022 decision to stop supplying gas to Spain via Morocco after diplomatic ties between Algiers and Rabat broke down.