Nigeria has enormous gas reserves, the first in Africa. The Nigerian Minister of Petroleum has given the green light in recent weeks to the financing of two gas pipelines, one passing through Morocco, the other through Algeria.
A trans-Saharan project with Niger and Algeria
The trans-Saharan gas pipeline project, linking Nigeria to Algeria via Niger over 4,100 kilometers, which had been dormant for several years, was relaunched by the ministers of the three countries meeting in Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria, on 21 June 2022.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Africa’s gas reserves have increasingly attracted the attention of the European Union, which is seeking alternatives to Russia.
With soaring gas prices and the need to find other sources of supply, investors should be more inclined to get involved in this project, the cost of which is estimated at nearly 20 billion dollars.
The main risk is linked to the numerous armed terrorist groups well established on the passage of the Gas Pipeline: Boko Haram and ISWAP in northern Nigeria, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in the south, Aqmi and the State group Islam in Niger, to name only the best known. Despite this major obstacle, Algeria is pushing the project all the more as it is in competition with another project linking Nigeria to Morocco.
That of Morocco would pass through a dozen African countries
This 6,000 kilometer gas pipeline project aims to supply Morocco and Europe with Nigerian gas, via West Africa. It received an official green light from Abuja on June 2, 2022. Four years ago, King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari agreed on this gas transmission megaproject along the Atlantic coast.
This gas pipeline should pass through a dozen West African countries to Morocco, and from Morocco to Spain and Europe. It would be an extension of the gas pipeline which has been transporting gas from southern Nigeria to Benin, Ghana and Togo since 2010.
Many obstacles still stand in the way of these two projects. With soaring gas prices, financing isn’t necessarily the hardest part. According to some experts, Moscow is watching these projects closely, which aim to compete with Russian gas. According to Benjamin Augé of IFRIthe Russian giant Gazprom “seeks to circumscribe any possibility of diversification of the European Union”. VSThis could explain Russia’s renewed interest in the region in recent years.