The Nigerian government has concluded top level plans to enter into an agreement with the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.
The authorization came on Wednesday during a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to immediately set in motion the modalities for the agreement.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed the decision to journalists after the meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who is in Madrid, Spain, on a state visit.
According to the Minister, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources had presented a memo to the FEC with the Council authorizing the NNPC to sign a memorandum of understanding with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline which will pass through several countries in the sub-region.
The pipeline, according to the Minister, would connect Nigerian gas to all West African coastal countries including Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania, ending in Tangier, Morocco and Cadiz, Spain.
The 7,000-kilometer-long pipeline which will also cross the territorial waters of 13 countries, is intended to be a catalyst for the economic development of the North-West African region and carries a strong desire to integrate as well as improve the economic and social development of the region.
It also aims to boost the regional economy through the promotion of economic development in North-West Africa, the development of job-generating industries, the reduction of gas flaring and the use of reliable and sustainable energy.
The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline mega-project had been first discussed during the official visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco in December 2016 to President Buhari in Abuja.
Following the high powered meeting, a related agreement was signed on June 10, 2018, during a reciprocal visit to Rabat Nigeria’s President Buhari.
The mega project is also the subject of an agreement between the NNPC and the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).