Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines of Morocco signed a Memorandum of Understanding to begin work on a 5,600-kilometre gas pipeline between the two countries.
Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries and the Economic Community of West African States in Rabat, Morocco, according to NNPC, the much-anticipated Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project officially got underway.
According to the statement, the two nations and ECOWAS carried out the MoU agreement on the project, which was an important step in achieving the Federal Government’s goal of utilising Nigeria’s plentiful gas resources.
The NMGP is a 5,600-kilometre gas pipeline project that will eventually connect 13 African nations and supply gas from Nigeria to West African nations all the way up to the Kingdom of Morocco, then to Europe.
Once finished, the project will provide three billion standard cubic feet of gas per day along the West African coast from Nigeria to Morocco, via Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Gambia.
Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, signed the contract on behalf of Nigeria, while Dr. Amina Benkhadra, the Director-General of Morocco’s National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mines, did the same.
Mr Sediko Douka, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy, and Digitalization, signed on behalf of the sub-regional group.
At the MoU signing ceremony, Kyari gave a speech in which he referred to the development as a crucial turning point in the NMGP project, where all of the major players had come together to reconfirm their commitment to seeing the project through.
Kyari thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and His Royal Majesty, King Mohammed VI of Morocco for entrusting NNPC Ltd and ONHYM with the strategic project and said that from the project’s inception to this point, coordinated efforts by the governments of both countries had resulted in the successes recorded thus far.
He said the Federal Government and the Kingdom of Morocco would benefit immeasurably from the execution of the project, as this would extend beyond the supply of gas to energise the countries along the route.
Conceived during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria in December 2016, the NMGP project is an initiative of the Federal Government and the Kingdom of Morocco.
It is aimed at monetising Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, thereby generating additional revenue for the country, diversifying Nigeria’s gas export routes and eliminating gas flaring across the country.
The pipeline will originate from Brass Island (Nigeria) and terminates at the North of Morocco, where it will be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline that originates from Algeria (via Morocco), all the way to Spain.
