THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC) has been given authorisation by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to engage into an agreement with ECOWAS for the building of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline.
Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, briefed State House media after the FEC meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
According to Sylva, the project is still in the front end engineering design phase, after which the cost will be determined.
The pipeline would go through 15 nations in West Africa on its way to Morocco and Spain.
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented three memos to Council.
“The first memo, Council approved for the NNPC Ltd to execute MoU with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline.
“This gas pipeline is to take gas to 15 West African countries and to Morocco and through Morocco to Spain and Europe,’’ he said.
The council also authorized a N3.8 billion project to build a switchgear room and install power distribution cables and equipment for the Nigerian oil and gas park in Ogbia, Bayelsa, according to the minister.
He added that the park’s purpose is to assist local component production for the oil and gas industry. Furthermore, Sylva stated that the FEC approved different contracts totaling N11 billion plus 7.5 percent VAT for the construction of an access road with bridges to the Brass Petroleum Product Deport at Inibomoyekiri in Brass Local Government.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Moroccan Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (National Board of Hydrocarbons and Mines) proposed the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline in a December 2016 agreement.
The pipeline would connect Nigerian gas to every coastline country in West Africa, including Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania, before terminating in Tangiers, Morocco, and Cádiz, Spain.
