West African leaders have approved the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) project after signing an agreement at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The approximately 6,000-kilometre pipeline will transport natural gas from Nigeria through 13 countries along Africa’s Atlantic coast to Morocco, where it will connect to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, linking West African gas resources to regional and European markets.
Announcing the development, ECOWAS Chairman and Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio said the agreement marked a major milestone for regional energy integration.
According to Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the project is expected to strengthen African energy markets and create a new development corridor connecting West Africa, the Sahel, Morocco and Europe.
The two institutions said the next phase will involve establishing a project company in Casablanca and a governing authority in Abuja before attracting investors and taking a final investment decision.
Construction of the estimated US$27 billion pipeline is expected to begin in 2028, with the first gas deliveries targeted for 2031.
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline was first proposed during King Mohammed VI of Morocco’s visit to Nigeria in 2016 and has gained renewed momentum following Algeria’s suspension of gas supplies to Spain through Morocco in 2022 after diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated.
