Rabat – Amina Benkhadra, the general manager of Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Minerals (ONHYM), has said that Morocco is in talks with European partners to guarantee the financing of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.
Europe sees the pipeline as a “golden opportunity” to diversify its gas supplies, the ONHYM stated in an interview on Monday with the Moroccan newspaper Le Matin, noting that the much-touted pan-African pipeline is a strategic project initiated by King Mohammed VI and President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.
The project is the culmination of Morocco and Nigeria’s shared ambition of launching a joint, regional project that would be “a catalyst for regional economic development,” said Benkhadra.
The vision behind the project falls within the framework of collaboration between the two African countries, she added, stressing: “Natural gas is an essential source of energy for any [type of] energy because of its flexibility and its interest in supporting renewable energies.”
The Moroccan official emphasized the importance of energy sovereignty, saying the project will not only serve Nigeria and Morocco but also several countries in Africa and Europe.
The Nigeria-Morocco pipeline is a multi-billion mega project that seeks to provide energy services across over 11 African countries and reaching all the way to Europe.
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The project requires a budget of $25 billion and will run 1,672 kilometers through Morocco. Some recent estimates suggest that the pipeline would transport over 5,400 billion cubic meters of gas to Morocco annually.
It will benefit Morocco’s energy supplies, particularly in the context of Algeria’s decision to end the contract of the Europe-Maghreb gas pipeline in October last year.
To secure energy supply in the aftermath of the Algerian decision, Morocco announced in June that it had entered the international Natural Liquified Gas market for the first time. On July 1, Spanish news outlet La Vanguardia reported that the North African country has notably been receiving gas from the US through the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline.
Confirming the news in recent comments during a parliamentary hearing, Morocco’s Energy Minister Leila Benali expressed satisfaction with Morocco’s first-ever — and successful — foray into the international liquefied gas market to meet its energy needs.
