The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to sign an agreement with Economic Committee of West African States (ECOWAS) for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline.
This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva after the FEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mr Sylva said the project was still at the point of the “front end engineering design after which the cost would be determined.”
“The pipeline would traverse 15 West African countries 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 approved the construction of a switchgear room and installation of power distribution cables and equipment for the Nigeria oil and gas park in Ogbia, Bayelsa, in the sum of N3.8billion,” he said.
He noted that “the park was to support local manufacturing of components for the oil and gas industry.”
Mr Sylva added that, “FEC approved various contracts for the construction of an access road with bridges to the Brass Petroleum Product Deport in Inibomoyekiri in Brass Local Government in the sum of N11billion plus 7.5 per cent VAT.”
The Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline was proposed in a December 2016 agreement between the NNPC and the Moroccan Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (National Board of Hydrocarbons and Mines) (ONHYM).
The Gas Pipeline would connect Nigerian gas to every coastal country in West Africa (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania), ending at Tangiers, Morocco, and Cádiz, Spain.
