Nigeria-Morocco pipeline approaches ability to provide gas to Europe
Nigeria and Morocco signed an agreement that inches a long-standing proposal for a gas pipeline between the two countries closer to reality, raising the possibility of a new energy-supply route for West Africa and Europe.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Co. and Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines signed a memorandum of understanding in Rabat on Thursday, Nigeria’s state oil company said in a statement. While the project could take decades to complete and cost billions of dollars if it goes ahead, the ceremony comes with European nations increasingly hungry for new sources of gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 5,600-kilometer (3,840-mile) conduit along West Africa’s coast would provide gas to the 15-country Economic Community of West African States, which also signed the agreement, and permit fuel to be shipped to Spain and the rest of Europe. The Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund for International Development have committed nearly $60 million to finance feasibility and engineering studies for what would be one of the longest pipelines ever built.
If the Nigeria-Morocco pipeline advances, it will be many years before it delivers any gas. Signing a previous agreement in 2018, the two government said the project could take 25 years to finish.
The NNPC is also promoting a second transcontinental gas pipeline that would travel about 4,400 kilometers from Nigeria through the Sahara Desert to northern Algeria for onward transport to European markets.
Source: Worldoil.com
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