Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to Invest $12.5 Bln
Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPCL) will invest $12.5 billion to secure a 50% stake in the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project.
This significant undertaking, which would span 11 African nations over a distance of almost 5,600 km, is anticipated to break the current record for the longest offshore gas pipeline.
The National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) and NNPCL are both contributing an equal amount to the project’s financing.
The pipeline project for the Corporation, which will connect Nigeria and Morocco, is currently in Phase II of the preliminary design study, as well as undergoing an environmental impact assessment and rights of way investigations, according to NNPCL managing director Mallam Mele Kyari, who was speaking in Abuja on Thursday.
The vast natural gas reserves of Nigeria, which currently stand at more than 200 billion cubic feet, might increase to 600 billion cubic feet as a result of increased investment anticipated as a result of the recent resolution of production sharing contract conflicts with partners, claims Kyari.
The substantial reserve, according to him, will offer a low-carbon energy option that will assist development in the energy and industrial sectors, combat poverty, lessen carbon emissions, and increase employment possibilities.
The capacity of Nigeria’s gas infrastructure network to transport 6.9 billion standard cubic feet of gas to enable power generation was also mentioned by the speaker.
One of the major initiatives connecting the two countries through many West African nations is the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. Studies for this massive project are far along the way, and memoranda of understanding have recently been signed.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Kingdom of Morocco signed the first one.
Two more agreements were made, one between Morocco, Nigeria, and Mauritania, and the other between Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal.
Between Morocco and Nigeria and Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, respectively and in that order, five additional tripartite memorandums of understanding were signed.
The strategically important Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, which was inspired by His Majesty King Mohammed VI and Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, will follow the coast of West Africa from Nigeria through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania to Morocco.
In addition to supplying the landlocked nations of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, it will be connected to both the European gas network and the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline.
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