The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with five other African countries for the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project.
This was disclosed in a statement by the company, posted on its official Twitter account.
The countries are Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Sierra Leone.
The statement indicated that the signing, which took place in Rabat, Morocco, marks yet another significant step in the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project execution.
It pointed out that during the signing ceremony, Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, said natural gas is a critical transition fuel.
He was further quoted to have said that the NNPC is well positioned to progress the pipeline project which Africa stands to benefit from through the creation of wealth and improvement of the standard of living of the citizenry.
According to Kyari, the NNPC Limited will facilitate the continuous supply of gas and provide other enablers such as the required land for the first compressor station to be deployed in Nigeria, which is among the 13 stations earmarked along the pipeline route.
The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline is a 5,600km gas pipeline that cuts across the length of 13 African countries – Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania to Morocco.
It is projected to have 13 compressor stations and an estimated cost of $25 billion.
In December 2016 and in June 2018, Nigeria and Morocco signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the same Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, while on September 15, 2022, the NNPC, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to kick off the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP).
