UAE to invest in Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline

ABU DHABI - Morocco and the UAE signed on Monday an Memorandum of Understanding on investment cooperation in the Africa-Atlantic gas pipeline project that will channel Nigeria’s gas to Morocco and ultimately to Europe.

The deal was part of several MoUs that were signed between the UAE and Morocco King Mohammed VI’s state visit to the Gulf Arab state.

The UAE will contribute both financially and technically to the realization of the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline project which will provide energy security in West and North Africa and boost the regions’ economic integration.

King Mohammed VI said on November 6 during a speech to mark the 47th anniversary of the Green March that he wanted the 25-billion-dollar pipeline to be “a strategic project that benefits all of West Africa” which will provide “opportunities, particularly in terms of energy security.” 

“This is a project for peace for African economic integration and for co-development: a project for the present and for the future generations,” said King Mohammed VI.

The 5,600-kilometer-long pipeline project will span over  13 countries along the Atlantic coast, connecting Nigeria’s gas to Europe through Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco.

In July 2022, Algeria, Nigeria and Niger signed a memorandum of understanding to build a natural gas pipeline across the Sahara desert.

The three countries agreed in June 2022 to revive decades-old talks over the project, a potential opportunity for Europe to diversify its gas sources.

But the Niger military coup and funding challenges on a key domestic pipeline threatened to shatter Nigeria's ambitions of accessing the European gas market through the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline.