FID For $25bn Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project Will Be Made Before December, Kyari Tells Stakeholders At Houston Energy Conference

The Final Investment Decision for the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project will be taken before the end of December this year, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroluem Company Limited, Mele Kyari has said.

Kyari said this on Tuesday at the 2024 edition of CERAWeek by S&P Global holding in Houston, the United States.

CERAWeek 2024, which is being attended by over 8,000 delegates, 1,400 speakers from 85 countries has as its theme, ‘Multidimensional Energy Transition: Markets, climate, technology and geopolitics.’

The conference is growing as the energy industry expands to include cleaner technologies as demand for climate solutions grows.

The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) Project is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco and was conceived during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria in December 2016.

The NNPCL had in June last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with four national oil companies for the implementation of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas pipeline project.

The tripartite MOUs were respectively and successively signed between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) of Morocco on one hand, and the Société Nationale des Opérations Pétrolières of Cote d’Ivoire (PETROCI), the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures of Benin (SNH-Benin), and the Société Nationale des Pétroles of the Republic of Guinea (SONAP) on the other hand.

These Memoranda of Understanding, similar to those signed with ECOWAS on September 15, 2022, Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, and The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Ghana on December 5, 2022, reaffirmed the commitment of the Parties to this strategic project.

Giving an update on the project at the Leadership Dialogue session chaired by Vice Chairman, S&P Global, Daniel Yergin, the NNPCL Boss said the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project is aimed at monetization of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, thereby generating additional revenue, diversification of Nigeria’s gas export routes, elimination of gas flaring.

He said, “We want to create a pipeline that can pass through 10 African countries into Morocco then jump into Europe.

“What that will do is that it will create integration among the African countries, a number of countries that do not have to have gas resources so that that collaboration will enable them have access to those pipelines.

“And our estimate is to see a $25bn project, clear line of sight around financing for that project and then the alternate route is to pass through the centre of our country all the way through the Sahara into Algeria into European and this is very clear.

When asked if the project is still at the planning stage, Kyari replied, “The Morocco gas pipeline is beyond planning. I think we will have to see FID by the end of the year. That’s our plan.”

The Pipeline Cooperation Agreement for the project was executed in 2017. The pipeline length of the project is 5,300 kilometers from Nigeria-Dakhla (Morocco) and 1,700 kilometers (onshore) from Dakhla (Morocco)-Northern Morocco.
The pipeline capacity for the project is 30BCM per year which is equivalent to 3.0 BSCFD.

It will also assist in supplying gas to Morocco, 13 ECOWAS Countries and Europe, integration of the economies of the Sub-region, improvement of living standards of people within the Sub-region, creation of wealth and poverty alleviation, assisting in the fight against the desertification through sustainable and reliable gas supply as well as providing avenue for other Countries along the pipeline route to develop and export their gas.

The pipeline is a 48 Inch X 5,300 Km (Offshore from Barss Island-Nigeria to Dakhla-Morocco) and 56” X 1,700 Km (onshore from Dakhla-Morocco to MEP), with a total length of about over 7,000 Km and about thirteen (Compressor Stations.

The pipeline will originate from Brass Island (Nigeria) and terminates at North of Morocco, where it will be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP) that originates from Algeria (via Morocco) to Spain.
Once completed, the project will enhance the monetization of the natural gas resources of the affected African countries and also offer a new alternative export route to Europe.