Morocco: West African Leaders Back $25b Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline

What the report says

AllAfrica, distributing a Daba Finance report from Abidjan, says West African heads of state have given political backing to the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, a proposed $25 billion project intended to move natural gas along West Africa and onward to Europe. The endorsement came at an Economic Community of West African States summit in Sierra Leone on Sunday, according to the report.

The planned pipeline would run about 6,800 kilometers from Nigeria to Morocco, passing through 13 West African countries before connecting to the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline toward Spain. Daba Finance reported that developers plan to create a project company in Casablanca and a higher coordinating authority in Abuja to manage financing and work toward a final investment decision.

The project is being led by Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. The report says it is designed to carry as much as 30 billion cubic meters of gas each year, with roughly half intended for Morocco and European markets, while also linking gas resources in Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania and supplying participating West African states.

Daba Finance framed the ECOWAS decision as a major political step for a project first proposed by Morocco in 2016, though financing, engineering and commercial arrangements still need to be finalized. The report also noted the broader context of Europe seeking more diversified gas supplies and competing African export routes, including Algeria’s Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline proposal.