The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco are fast tracking talks as regards the
Final Investment Decision on the $30bn Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline.
Both nations held discussions about the deal on the side-lines of a meeting between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, and the Moroccan Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Ms. Leila Benali.
This is according to a Statement issued by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in Abuja on Thursday.
The statement revealed that the meeting was anchored by the Executive Vice President, Gas, Power and New Energy, NNPCL, Olalekan Ogunleye, and the Director-General, Morocco National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines, Amina Benkhadra.
It would be recalled that Nigeria, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Benin, and Guinea signed four Memoranda of Understanding for the construction of the $30bn Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project at the Abuja headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States last year.
Four new MoUs were signed and the tripartite agreements were signed between the NNPCL and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines of Morocco on one hand, and the Société Nationale des Opérations Pétrolières of Cote d’Ivoire, the National Oil Company of Liberia, the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures of Benin, and the Société Nationale des Pétroles of the Republic of Guinea on the other hand.
It stated that the MoUs, similar to those signed with ECOWAS on September 15, 2022, Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, and The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Ghana on December 5, 2022, reaffirmed the commitment of the parties to the strategic project.
The NNPCL stated that discussions on the Final Investment Decision for the project continued, as the talks focused on how to drive the partnership between Nigeria and Morocco to accelerate the project.
