Nigeria-Morocco Pipeline: ONHYM, NNPC sign MoUs with five African countries concerned by the Project

Five tripartite Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed on Monday in Rabat, within the framework of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project.

These MoUs were signed respectively and successively by Morocco and Nigeria, on the one hand, and by Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana, on the other.

The Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) and the National Nigerian Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) thus signed the MoUs with the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC-Gambia); with PETROGUIN-Guinea Bissau; with La Société Nationale des Pétroles “SONAP” of the Republic of Guinea; with Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone “PDSL”; and with Ghana National Gas Company “GNGC”.

These MoUs, like those signed with ECOWAS on September 15, 2022 and those signed with Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, confirm the parties’ commitment to this strategic project which, once completed, will supply gas to all West African countries and will also provide a new export route to Europe.

The signing of these agreements reflects the commitment of the countries concerned to contribute to the completion of this strategic project, and attests to their desire to see it through.

This flagship infrastructure will contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the populations, the integration of the economies of the sub-region and the mitigation of desertification thanks to a sustainable and reliable gas supply that respects the continent’s commitments to environmental protection. The strategic project will benefit all of West Africa – a region which is home to more than 440 million people, and make it possible to give Africa a new economic, political and strategic dimension.

The pipeline will run along the West African coast from Nigeria through Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania up to Morocco. It will be connected to the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline and the European gas network. The infrastructure will also supply the landlocked states of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

King Mohammed VI had described, in a speech he delivered last November, the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project that will link Africa to Europe as “a project for peace, for African economic integration and for co- development… a project for the present and for future generations.”

The King also commended the support of regional and international financing institutions, which have expressed their wish to participate in the implementation of the NMGP.