Morocco is set to establish a public company to manage the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project, according to a recent report of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The new company will be affiliated with the National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mines in Rabat in order to manage and develop the national gas infrastructure in general as well as the Morocco-Europe gas pipeline, on behalf of the state’s budget.
The upcoming company will also supervise the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, considered to become the largest infrastructure project on the African continent, and will cost billions of dollars over the upcoming years.
Earlier this month, the Islamic Development Bank has launched a request for proposals for the financing of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project.
The request for proposals stated that the project had received financing from the Islamic Development Bank, so that the pipeline is expected to run from the Brass Island station in Nigeria to reach Morocco, to be linked later to the Maghreb-European gas pipeline. The pipeline is expected to operate at a flow rate of 30 billion cubic meters per year.
On October 26, Algeria said it will stop supplying natural gas to Morocco through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline starting November, whose contract will expire on October 31, following its unilateral decision to sever diplomatic ties with Morocco, according to multiple Reuters sources.
The Nigeria-Morocco project will enable delivering natural gas resources from Nigeria to 13 countries in the African continent, including Morocco, Benin, Togo, and Ghana.
As for oil exploration activities, the Ministry of Economy stated that the partners of the National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mines invested a total of MAD398 million last year, and the office contributed to the investment efforts by about MAD108 million.
During the past year, the office achieved a transaction of MAD195 million in the production of natural gas, recording a decrease of 20% compared to 2019, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on natural gas prices.
The office expects its investments to amount to about MAD265 million by the end of this year. Among the investments of the office, the development of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project and the gas distribution and marketing project.
As for 2022, expectations indicate that the office’s turnover will approach MAD199 million, recording a decline of 4% compared to the expectations by the end of this year (MAD208 million), and an increase of 2% compared to 2020 (MAD195 million).
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