The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has signed five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the National Oil Companies (NOCs) and relevant entities of The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone for the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project, which has the potential to improve energy infrastructure in the region and benefit 400 million people across West Africa.
The signing ceremony was held on 5 December in Morocco’s capital city of Rabat, and was attended by Mele Kyari, Group CEO of NNPC Limited; Dr. Amina Benkhadra, General Director of Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM); Babourcarr Njie, Managing Director of The Gambia National Petroleum Corporation; Celedonio Placido Vieira, General Director of Guinea-Bissau’s NOC, PetroGuin; Amadou Doumbouya, Director General of Guinea’s National Company of Oil; Foday Mansaray II, Director General of the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone; and Dr. Ben K.D. Asante, CEO of the Ghana National Gas Company.
The 5,600km Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline will span 11 West African countries along the Atlantic coast and is expected to cost $25 billion. With a projected capacity of approximately 3 billion cubic feet per day upon completion, the aim of the pipeline is to transport gas from Nigeria to Europe while supporting auxiliary energy infrastructure in West Africa and ensuring further integration and cooperation within the region.
“Other benefits include the creation of wealth and improvement in the standard of living of our citizenry, increased cooperation between our countries while mitigating against desertification and other benefits to be derived from reduction in carbon emissions,” Kyari stated, adding, “NNPC 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 nations earmarked along the pip