Amina Benkhadra, Director of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Minerals in Morocco, announced that the final decision on investment in the natural gas pipeline between Nigeria and Morocco has been postponed until early 2025. The decision was scheduled to be made in December 2024.

Benkhadra invited all investors – including foreign sovereign funds, international oil companies and multilateral banks – to participate in financing the project, stressing that the project will be implemented through a partnership between the public and private sectors.

The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline is an important project that aims to connect Nigeria's huge gas reserves to European markets via Morocco.

This line aims to transport gas to Spain via Morocco, with the possibility of linking it to other countries in West Africa along its route.

The cost of the project is $25 billion, and its capacity is expected to reach 30 billion cubic meters annually. It will be implemented in phases over a period of 25 years, while linking it to the existing infrastructure.

Morocco succeeded in securing an agreement with “one of the largest gathering operators in Europe” to purchase the entire amount of gas that will be exported through the pipeline, once it is connected to the Morocco-Europe pipeline.
Studies have shown that the pipeline provides a more cost-competitive way to transport gas, compared to transporting it via tankers as liquefied natural gas.

Nigeria is considered one of the countries that possess huge gas reserves, but it faces difficulties in attracting investments to this sector.

Nigeria is currently looking to accelerate work on an alternative submarine pipeline, known as the “Africa-Atlantic Gas Pipeline.”

The European Union is striving to secure new sources of gas. With the aim of eliminating Russian imports by 2027, in response to the war in Ukraine.

The military coup that took place in Niger last year led to the project to export Nigerian gas to Europe via a pipeline passing through the Sahara desert being shrouded in a state of uncertainty.