NNPC targets FID on Nigeria-Morocco gas pipe in 2023: press
Nigeria's national oil company NNPC plans to take a final investment decision on a pipeline to flow the country's gas to Morocco next year, its CEO Mele Kyari told Bloomberg in an interview on October 10.
NNPC signed a memorandum of understanding with Morocco's National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines last month on the long-planned project, which could involve building a 5,600-km pipeline to enable Nigerian gas to reach European markets via Morocco. Its cost is estimated at $20-25bn, Kyari said, and construction will take place in phases, with the first segment taking three years to complete and the others five years.
While primarily an oil exporter, Nigeria boasts some 200 trillion ft3 of gas, but has struggled to monetise this resource because of a lack of fiscal incentives and inadequate regulation. NNPC is also pushing to revive a 4,400-km pipeline project that would run through the Sahara Desert to Algeria, from where gas could be delivered to Europe.
Risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft recently noted to NGW that neither project stood more than a remote chance of being realised before the end of this decade, however.