The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC Limited) to execute an MoU with the Economic Committee of West African States, ECOWAS, for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline to take gas from West African countries through Morocco to Spain and Europe.
This was disclosed by Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, after the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister stated that the project was still at the point of the front-end engineering design, after which the cost would be determined, as the pipeline would pass through 15 West African countries to Morocco and Spain.
Sylva said, “The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented three memos to Council.
“The first memo, Council approved for the NNPC Ltd to execute MoU with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline.
“This gas pipeline is to take gas to 15 West African countries and Morocco and through Morocco to Spain and Europe”.
He also added that the FEC approved the construction of a switchgear room and installation of power distribution cables and equipment for the Nigeria oil and gas park in Ogbia, Bayelsa, in the sum of N3.8billion, citing that the park will boost local manufacturing of components for the oil and gas industry.
Also approved was the construction of an access road with bridges to the Brass Petroleum Product Deport in Inibomoyekiri in Brass Local Government in the sum of N11billion plus 7.5% VAT.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline was proposed in a December 2016 agreement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Moroccan Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (National Board of Hydrocarbons and Mines) (ONHYM).
The pipeline would connect Nigerian gas to every coastal country in West Africa (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania), ending at Tangiers, Morocco, and Cádiz, Spain.
