Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today on a 7,000km gas pipeline project, estimated at a cost of $25 billion, with National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco and the ECOWAS Commission.
The signing of the agreement is scheduled to hold in Rabat, Morocco.
The Nigerian company and National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco, will also sign two MoUs with Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH) of Mauritania and Petrosen of Senegal, both of which are expected to participate in the project.
Prior to the signing of the MoU, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Malam Mele Kyari, will pay a courtesy visit to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, to reaffirm the Nigerian company’s commitment on the project to provide gas to West-African countries through the Kingdom of Morocco and subsequently Europe.
According to available information on the deal, the 7,000km gas pipeline when completed, will supply about three billion standard cubic feet of gas along the coast of West Africa from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania to Morocco.
The multi-billion dollar project is also expected that the gas pipeline project would improve the standards of living of people within the sub-region, create wealth, assist in the fight against desertification through sustainable and reliable gas supply and serve as link to other countries along the pipeline route to produce and export their gas.
Based on its design, the pipeline, which will be the longest offshore pipeline globally, will originate from Brass Island in Nigeria and terminates at North of Morocco, where it will be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP) that originates from Algeria to Spain.
