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Nigeria-Morocco Pipeline: NNPC Seals Deal with Ghana, Gambia, Others
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) yesterday signed separate memoranda of Association (MoU) with the national oil companies of Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone in furtherance of the planned Nigeria-Morocco Gas pipeline project.
The signing ceremony which was held in Morocco, was attended by the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari; the General Director of Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines, Dr. Amina Benkhadra and representatives of the other countries.
In his comments, Kyari highlighted the roles played by the participating countries to make the planned commencement of the project to fruition.
The GCEO recalled that on September 15, 2022, the NNPC and the Moroccan national oil company signed an MoU with the ECOWAS Commission, after similarly signing agreements with Petrosen of Senegal and SMH of Mauritania.
“Today, we will be attaining another feat by signing five MoUs with the national oil companies and relevant entities from Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.
“From inception of the project to this stage, concerted efforts have been made by the governments of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco, which led to the very commendable achievements recorded thus far.
“As the strategic vision of our great leaders gains momentum, I would like to express our appreciation to His Royal Majesty, King Mohammed VI of Morocco and His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria for entrusting NNPC Limited with this strategic project,” he stated.
According to him, the African Continent stands to benefit immensely from the execution of the project which extends beyond the supply of gas to energise the countries along the route.
Kyari listed other benefits of the project to include the creation of wealth and improvement in the standard of living of the citizenry, increased cooperation among the countries involved in the deal, while mitigating against desertification and other benefits to be derived from reduction in carbon emission.
“Natural gas must play a crucial role, as a transition fuel, on our path to net-zero. Gas will support the establishment of base load energy capacity, stabilisation of the grid to allow for integration of renewables at scale and addressing our clean cooking fuel deficit in the form of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
“This therefore presents the opportunity of commercialising significant natural gas in the short to long term,” he explained.
Kyari assured the partners that the NNPC would leverage its experience and technical capabilities, ranging from gas production, processing, transmission and marketing as well as its vast experience in executing major gas infrastructure projects in Nigeria to ensure the project progresses as planned.
He added: “NNPC Limited 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 stations earmarked along the pipeline route.”
The project was aimed at monetisation of Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, thereby generating additional revenue for the country, diversification of Nigeria’s gas export routes and elimination of gas flaring.
It’s a 48 inch X 5,300 Km, offshore from Brass Island-Nigeria to Dakhla-Morocco) and 56” X 1,700 Km , onshore from Dakhla-Morocco, with a total length of over 7,000 Km and about 13 compressor stations.
It would terminate in the north of Morocco, where it would be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP) that originates from Algeria, via Morocco to Spain.
