Nigeria has signed memoranda of Association (MoU) respectively with the governments of Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone as part of plans to expand the planned Nigeria-Morocco Gas pipeline project.
The signing ceremony was held in Rabat, Morocco last Monday between a Nigerian delegation led by the group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Mr. Mele Kyari, and the respective national oil companies of the listed countries.
The general director of Morocco’s national office of hydrocarbons and mines, Mrs. Amina Benkhadra stood in for Morocco.
Kyari said NNPC will provide a “continuous supply” of gas for the pipeline. Nigeria will also oversee the provision of land to host the first, of 13, compressor stations.
The NNPC boss had recalled that last September, Nigeria and Moroccan signed an MoU with the ECOWAS Commission, after similarly signing agreements with Petrosen of Senegal and SMH of Mauritania.
“From the inception of the project to this stage, concerted efforts have been made by the governments of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco, which led to the very commendable achievements recorded thus far.
Benefits of the project include the creation of wealth and improvement in the standard of living of the citizenry, increased cooperation among the countries involved in the deal, while mitigating against desertification and other benefits to be derived from reduction in carbon emission.
“Natural gas must play a crucial role, as a transition fuel, on our path to net-zero. Gas will support the establishment of base load energy capacity, stabilization of the grid to allow for integration of renewables at scale and addressing our clean cooking fuel deficit in the form of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
“This therefore presents the opportunity of commercializing significant natural gas in the short to long term,” he posited
Kyari assured the partners that the NNPC would leverage its experience and technical capabilities, ranging from gas production, processing, transmission and marketing as well as its vast experience in executing major gas infrastructure projects in Nigeria to ensure the project progresses as planned.
The project was aimed at monetization of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, thereby generating additional revenue for the country, diversification of Nigeria’s gas export routes and elimination of gas flaring.
It’s a 48 inch X 5,300 Km, offshore from Brass Island-Nigeria to Dakhla-Morocco) and 56” X 1,700 Km , onshore from Dakhla-Morocco, with a total length of over 7,000 Km and about 13 compressor stations.
It would terminate in the north of Morocco, where it would be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP) that originates from Algeria, via Morocco to Spain.
By Bosco Anayo
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