Rabat – The Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) studies for the colossal Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) are nearing completion, said Leila Benali, the Energy Minister, on Monday.
The FEED studies are part of the initial project phase where the scope, budget, schedule, technical specifications, and risk assessments are defined to ensure project viability and provide a blueprint for detailed engineering and construction.
Speaking at a public hearing at the House of Representatives, Benali detailed the latest update on the progress of the mega $25-billion project, explaining that stakeholders “are working now on determining the optimal route for the pipeline.”
“We’re proceeding with the evaluation studies, field studies, and studies on the environmental and social impact of the pipeline,” she added.
Benali further revealed that the “pipeline development will progress over three phases.” The first phase will involve Senegal, Mauritania, and Morocco.
Over the past two years, Morocco and Nigeria have made significant progress towards bringing the project to life. “A number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed.”
First conceived in 2016, the pipeline, is one of the most ambitious energy ventures globally. Once online, it would become the second-longest pipeline in the world, following the West-East gas pipeline in China.
The NMGP will be 5,600 kilometers in length and is set to cross 13 African countries, covering the energy needs of a staggering 400 million people along the West African coast.
The pipeline is forecasted to have an annual transportation capacity of 30 billion cubic meters, six times more than the annual gas consumption of Morocco, the minister detailed.
While investing in a gas pipeline contradicts Morocco’s broader green transition strategy, the minister stressed that the gas is “pivotal” to the country’s forward-looking climate aspirations.
In December 2023, Benali told American business media giant Bloomberg that on the road to phasing out natural gas, gas remains necessary to “accommodate the intermittency of renewables.”
The minister’s statement refers to the impracticality of relying solely on green energy sources, given that electricity production from either solar or wind is not constant. Therefore, countries still need access to gas to maintain energy sovereignty while waiting for the necessary technological developments that would allow for large-scale storage of green energy.
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