One of the world’s most ambitious energy infrastructure projects has passed its biggest political hurdle yet.
At the ECOWAS summit in Freetown, West African leaders signed a landmark Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) approving the development of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP). The endorsement officially integrates all coastal ECOWAS states into a single, unified energy corridor designed to transport Nigerian natural gas across 13 countries before reaching Europe.
Spanning nearly 6,000 to 6,800 kilometers along Africa’s Atlantic coast, the pipeline will carry up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Half of that capacity (15 billion cubic meters) is earmarked to power electricity grids, industrial zones, and fertilizer plants across West Africa, while the remaining half will be piped directly through Morocco into Europe via the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline.
Project Blueprint & Execution Timeline
The newly signed agreement lays out a clear roadmap to take the $27 billion project from paper to reality:
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Dual Governing Hubs: The administrative and commercial architecture will split between two countries:
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Casablanca, Morocco: Headquarters for the newly created “Project Company” overseeing commercial operations and construction finance.
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Abuja, Nigeria: Headquarters for the “Pipeline Higher Authority,” serving as the supreme regulatory and governing body.
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Target Construction Launch: Main technical, environmental, and engineering studies have been completed. Construction is scheduled to break ground in 2028, with first gas deliveries targeted for 2031.
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Mauritania & Morocco Signing: While ECOWAS states have signed the core framework, non-ECOWAS nations along the route (Morocco and Mauritania) will sign a separate complementary agreement later in Rabat.
