Morocco-Nigeria pipeline: UK’s RPS to undertake meteorological and oceanographic studies

British consulting firm RPS won a contract to undertake a study on the meteorological and oceanographic conditions for the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.

The contract was awarded by Morocco’s mines and hydrocarbons agency ONHYM and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, RPS said on its website.

The pipeline project is supported by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC with the cooperation of 13 countries in West Africa, it said.

“Its aims are to facilitate increased prosperity in the region by enabling monetization of natural gas resources. It also aims to increase energy security, support the energy transition through access to less-polluting fuels, and offer a new, alternative export route to Europe,” it added.

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 in November 2022, 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.

The project has the support of the ECOWAS west African economic grouping and is expected to help the region meet its energy security goals.