From Uche Usim, Abuja
Hope of an early completion of the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project (NMGPP) brightened on Friday as the Federal Government signed four significant Memoranda of Understanding aimed at strengthening the project
The MoUs were signed at the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.
These tripartite MOUs were respectively and successively endorsed between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) of Morocco on one hand, and the Société Nationale des Opérations Pétrolières of Cote d’Ivoire (PETROCI), the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures of Benin (SNH-Benin), and the Société Nationale des Pétroles of the Republic of Guinea (SONAP) on the other hand.
The accord, similar to those signed with ECOWAS on September 15, 2022, Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, and The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Ghana on December 5, 2022, reaffirm the commitment of the parties to this strategic project. Once completed, the project will enhance the monetisation of the natural gas resources of the affected African countries and also offer a new alternative export route to Europe.
Speaking at the event, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari, thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian government for entrusting NNPC Ltd with this strategic project as the National Energy Company.
He added that “as a commercial enterprise, NNPC Ltd sees this project as an opportunity to monetise Nigeria’s abundant hydrocarbon resources, by expanding access to energy to support economic growth, industrialisation, and job creation across the African continent and beyond.”
In his remarks, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitisation, Mr Sédiko Douka, said the gas pipeline project was significant as it would help strengthen the region’s electricity production/generation capacity, stimulate industrial and agricultural development, and contribute to the energy transition by using a source of energy that is cleaner than other fossil fuels.
The pipeline will connect Nigerian gas to every coastal country in West Africa, ending at Tangiers, Morocco, and Cádiz, Spain. It would apparently be an extension of the existing West African Gas Pipeline, which already connects Nigeria with Benin, Togo, and Ghana.
