(3 minutes read)
Morocco and Algeria, the so-called regional rivals, are engaged in two competing gas pipeline megaprojects. Both projects would link them to Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil and gas producer. This is primarily to target European gas requirements. The paradox is that the EU has made it clear that by the end of the decade, it would be more dependent on alternative sources of energy than fossil fuels.
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP), approximately 6,000 km long, would cross 13 African countries on the Atlantic to transport billions of cubic meters of Nigerian gas to Morocco. It will then be connected to the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline (GME). The project is still on paper and the date of commencement of the proposed project is still not known. The idea for the project was launched in 2016 by King Mohammed VI during a visit to Abuja to strengthen the partnership with African countries.
The renewed interest in the project, analysts say, was in response to the decision of Algiers – Africa’s leading exporter of natural gas – to terminate last year the GME contract supplying Spain with Algerian gas via Morocco, after the rupture of diplomatic relations with Rabat, precipitated by thorny issues relating to Western Sahara. Rabat claims its sovereignty over Western Sahara, while Algiers supports the separatists of the Polisario Front – depriving Morocco of the Algerian gas.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/tunnel-project-between-spain-and-morocco-to-be-revived/
At the end of 2022, Rabat and Abuja signed seven memorandums of understanding with Gambia, Guinea -Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mauritania, and Senegal, and another with the Economic Community of Eastern European States.
