Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition Leila Benali, and Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ekperikpe Ekpo, discussed and reviewed the status of the Nigeria-Morocco strategic natural gas pipeline project on Wednesday in Rabat.
The visit follows King Mohammed VI’s royal invitation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, to visit Morocco.
The ministers also focused their discussions on key initiatives in the energy and sustainable development sectors.
The Nigerian delegation received a briefing on the Kingdom of Morocco’s strategic direction in the energy sector, which is to double investment and raise it to more than $1 billion annually until 2030 to accelerate the pace of energy transition.
Benali said in a later press briefing that these projects are part of the positive momentum injected into bilateral relations by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI’s visit to Nigeria in December 2016, as well as the sovereign’s phone conversation with Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Adekunle, earlier this week.
Ekpo stated that the goal of his two-day visit to Morocco is to provide both sides with the opportunity to examine the progress of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, which was started in 2016 in connection with a royal visit to Nigeria.
Morocco and Nigeria maintain cooperative ties and beneficial cooperation in the domains of energy transition and sustainable development, as evidenced by the exchange of knowledge, expertise, capacity building, and project implementation.
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, regarded as one of the most critical projects ever launched on the African continent, is expected to boost economic growth and encourage regional integration.
The pipeline will stretch from Nigeria up the West African coast, passing through 13 African nations before connecting to the European market through Spain. The project, which stretches over 5,700 kilometers, will have an annual capacity of 30 to 40 billion cubic meters, equivalent to 3 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas delivered daily.