There are strong indications that the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco pipeline project may postponed till 2025 due to environmental and social effects of the project’s implementation
The initial FID decision was intended for 2023 but had to be shifted to allow for some modifications.
Latest information from the Moroccan Government on the FID indicates that it will now be executed next year for the project that will ship gas to Europe after all relevant studies are completed.
A statement issued by Morocco’s National Office for Hydrocarbons and Minerals on Wednesday hinged the postponement on the need to enable modification of the pipelines path for technical and environment reasons,.
The Office clarified: “Land survey studies launched recently with the aim of minimising environmental and social effects of the project could point to a slight revision of the pipeline path.
“The postponement of the investment decision until 2025 is normal in such mega projects…it will be taken after all technical, financial, commercial and political studies concerning the project are completed”, it added.
The pipeline project, part of an agreement signed by Morocco and Nigeria in 2017, is designed for the transportation of estimated 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year to Morocco and then to Europe through a pipeline that will stretch 5,300km from Nigeria to Dhakia in Morocco and 1,700 km from Dhakia to Northern Morocco.
The pipeline will pass through several African countries, including the Republic of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
