Mrs. Leila Benali, Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, today chaired the Moroccan delegation participating in the joint ministerial meeting organized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the unique Atlantic African Gas Pipeline project (Nigeria-Morocco) in Abuja, Nigeria. She was accompanied by Mrs. Amina Benkhadra, Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), Mr. Moha Ouali Tagma, Morocco’s ambassador to Nigeria, as well as senior officials from the Ministry.
During this meeting, Mrs. Benali reaffirmed Morocco’s commitment to the Atlantic African Gas Pipeline project, aimed at strengthening energy ties between West African countries and Morocco. She indicated that this strategic project aims to enable the emergence of true prosperity for Africa and its people by locally exploiting African resources, developing industrial infrastructure, and creating jobs.
The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline has always been much more than just a pipeline, she emphasized, stating that it is an eminently political project, the idea of which is championed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI and the Presidents of Nigeria.
“Their support for this vision has never wavered, as it is not just about infrastructure crossing several African countries over 6,000 kilometers, with a capacity of 15 to 30 billion cubic meters of gas, or modern energy access for nearly 400 million people spread across 13 countries,” the minister explained, noting that this project is primarily a response to global recognition, particularly in Europe, that the last reservoir of productive capacity for the coming decades is Africa.
Thanking the various partners who have embraced this vision by contributing to the perseverance necessary to pursue this initiative, Mrs. Benali announced that the project is now called the Atlantic Africa Pipeline, in reference to His Majesty the King’s Atlantic vision, aiming to provide Sahel countries with a gateway to the Atlantic and an opening to prosperity.
Furthermore, she emphasized that this meeting is an opportunity to concretely advance toward the financial and technical means that will make this project viable and achievable, including essential renewable energy projects in Morocco’s energy strategy.
Transnational infrastructures like this gas pipeline require structured, continuous, and rigorous financing, she continued, specifying that once operational, this infrastructure must be able to meet the energy supply needs of the continent and its partners.
This meeting of Ministers in charge of Energy and Hydrocarbons, expanded to include Ministers from Morocco and Mauritania, was preceded by a meeting of sectoral experts, ensuring thorough preparation of the topics to be examined.
The Abuja meeting follows a regional workshop for reviewing and validating the Host Government Agreement (HGA), held from October 8 to 11 in Lagos, Nigeria, and which follows numerous rounds of negotiations on the provisions of the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) and the Host Government Agreement (HGA), organized in Rabat, Marrakech, and Abidjan.
The organization of these working meetings and regional workshops on the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) project and the Host Government Agreement (HGA) project is part of the strategic Atlantic Africa Pipeline project, launched following the visionary initiative of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and supported by current Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
During this meeting, the Ministers adopted the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) on the Atlantic African Gas Pipeline and the Agreement with the Host Government (HGA) annexed to the IGA. They also agreed to organize an official signing ceremony for the Intergovernmental Agreement at the next ECOWAS Summit in December 2024 or another date to be set in the first quarter of 2025.
It should be noted that the Atlantic African Gas Pipeline project aims to promote economic development and facilitate access for the concerned countries to energy resources, while strengthening South-South cooperation, in line with His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s strategic vision for sustainable and integrated energy development in Africa, particularly along the Atlantic coast. Launched at the initiative of the Sovereign and former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2016, this project has already passed several important milestones, including the signing of memoranda of understanding between Morocco, Nigeria, and other concerned countries, as well as the completion of essential technical studies for its development.