A high-level Moroccan delegation led by Amina Benkhadra, Director General of the National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), held a series of strategic meetings in Washington this week, advancing Morocco’s campaign to secure international backing for the Africa-Atlantic Gas Pipeline (AAGP) and cement the kingdom’s position in global critical minerals supply chains.
The delegation engaged with the Department of Energy, the Department of State, the National Security Council, the World Bank, and several influential American think tanks, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Stimson Center, and the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, ONHYM said in a statement.
In a meeting with Acting Assistant Secretary at the Department of Energy Tommy Joyce, Morocco’s Ambassador Youssef Amrani underscored Washington’s growing interest, describing the project as a genuine opportunity for energy security and regional development.
Benkhadra presented the project’s latest milestones: completed feasibility studies and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED), the adoption of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) framework — awaiting signature by the 13 ECOWAS heads of state whose countries the route traverses — and ongoing institutional structuring ahead of a Final Investment Decision.
Stretching over 6,000 kilometers from southern Nigeria to northern Morocco, the pipeline is designed to serve approximately 400 million people, contributing to energy access in countries where only 40 per cent of the population currently has reliable electricity. Beyond energy provision, the project is seen as a catalyst for industrial development along the Atlantic corridor, linking West African gas resources to European markets.
Benkhadra also highlighted the growing synergies between the gas corridor and the extraction of critical minerals — two strategic pillars of Morocco’s energy transition agenda that together attracted sustained interest from American institutions and investors attending the Powering Africa Summit in Washington.
During these meetings, the various institutions and think tanks expressed strong interest in the AAGP project and in Morocco’s positioning in the energy and mining sectors, highlighting the transformative impact of these initiatives and their growing importance in the new international geo-economic and geostrategic dynamics.
The African Atlantic Gas Pipeline will eventually connect West Africa’s gas resources to Morocco through a strategic energy corridor linking Africa’s Atlantic seaboard to Europe, thereby promoting regional integration, access to energy, the continent’s industrialization, and the diversification of international energy supplies.
