West African leaders on Sunday signed an agreement approving the construction of a gas pipeline linking Nigeria to Morocco at a summit of regional bloc ECOWAS in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.
The roughly 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) will cross 13 countries along Africa's Atlantic coast, carrying Nigerian gas to Morocco before connecting to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline.
"We have already signed the West Africa-Morocco gas pipeline," said ECOWAS chair Julius Maada Bio said. "Don't be surprised when the gas comes your way."
Morocco's state hydrocarbons agency ONHYM and Nigeria's state oil company NNPC said in a statement that the project aimed to link west Africa's gas resources to major regional markets.
It also hopes to "strengthen the integration of African energy markets and create a new development corridor linking" west Africa, the Sahel, Morocco and Europe.
The next steps include creating a "project company" based in Casablanca and a governing authority headquartered in Abuja before investors are brought on board and a final investment decision is taken, they added.
Construction is expected to begin in 2028, with the first gas deliveries targeted for 2031, said an ONHYM source.
The project, first proposed during Moroccan King Mohammed VI's visit to Abuja in 2016, is estimated to cost around $27 billion.
Its revival has been driven in part by Algeria's 2022 decision to stop supplying gas to Spain via Morocco after diplomatic ties between Algiers and Rabat broke down.
