NNPC Ltd Group CEO Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari has reframed Africa’s energy narrative, transforming it into a compelling opportunity for infrastructure-led growth at the recent 2026 International Energy Week in London.
The Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline and West African Gas Pipeline expansion emerge not as engineering projects but as strategic instruments of continental reordering. Ojulari positioned accelerated delivery of these transnational corridors as fundamental to strengthening regional integration and advancing cross-border energy trade, transforming what has long been a narrative of abundance without access into one of deliberate, connective ambition.
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“Accelerated delivery of flagship projects such as the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline and the expansion of the West African Gas Pipeline is critical to strengthening regional integration and advancing cross-border energy trade,” Ojulari asserted, grounding Africa’s energy security and industrialisation in physical infrastructure rather than resource endowment alone.
The Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline is therefore not a 5,600km energy corridor. It is a test of whether Africa can build scale, harmonise policy, mobilise capital collectively, and position itself as a unified energy bloc in a transitioning global market.
In 2025, Nigeria and Morocco anchor the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline on vastly different but complementary economic scales. Nigeria, with a nominal GDP of approximately $285 billion and growth of 3.9–4.1%, holds Africa’s largest proven gas reserves, exceeding 206 trillion cubic feet, and targets oil production of 2 million barrels per day, leveraging its population of over 220 million to drive domestic demand and regional export ambition. Nigeria remains Africa’s largest gas holder and one of its top oil producers.
Morocco in 2025 emerged as a diversified North African economy with a nominal GDP between $165–196 billion and growth of approximately 4.4%, anchored in advanced manufacturing sectors such as automotive and aerospace, alongside established strengths in agriculture, renewables, and tourism. Its strategic geographic position straddling the Atlantic and Mediterranean, with deep proximity to European markets, transforms the country from a terminal consumer of energy into a critical transit and industrial hub. Within the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline framework, Morocco contributes not resource volume but infrastructure leverage: the capacity to process, consume, and re-export Nigerian gas toward European and regional markets, effectively serving as the western Mediterranean’s energy gateway while advancing its own industrial decarbonisation and regional diplomatic influence.
Morocco, unlike Nigeria, is energy import-dependent. Its strategy has been to position itself as a logistics, industrial, and energy transit hub between continents.
Together, the two economies represent over $450 billion in combined GDP, forming one of the most strategically complementary partnerships in Africa.
The Nigeria–Morocco relationship has matured from diplomatic courtesy to quantified economic integration, anchored by an estimated annual trade potential of $7–10 billion and current bilateral flows approaching $318 million. In 2024, Morocco exported $181 million to Nigeria, led by fertilisers ($113 million) and processed fish, while Nigeria exported $137 million to Morocco, dominated by refined petroleum and petroleum gas bilateral trade now representing approximately 1.88% of Nigeria’s total trade footprint. The partnership is materially reinforced by OCP Group’s $1.5 billion investment in Nigerian fertiliser and ammonia projects, over 21 bilateral agreements signed since 2016, and a Nigerian diaspora of roughly 3,000 residing in Morocco. This is no longer a pipeline diplomacy exercise alone; it is a deepening commercial architecture in which energy infrastructure, agricultural productivity, and industrial investment are increasingly intertwined.
Recent diplomatic gestures, including solidarity during Morocco’s 2026 floods and sports diplomacy during AFCON 2025, reflect growing political trust underpinning economic strategy.
The Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline was conceived in December 2016 during King Mohammed VI’s visit to Nigeria, designed to extend the West African Gas Pipeline northward, create a South–South cooperation model, integrate 13 West African countries, and establish an Atlantic energy corridor into Europe. Between 2017 and 2022, cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding between NNPC and ONHYM were executed, feasibility studies completed, and environmental assessments advanced. By 2025, a dedicated project company had been formed, Front-End Engineering Design advanced, construction commenced on the Nador–Dakhla segment in Morocco, and a Final Investment Decision was targeted by the end of 2025. This multi-phase, multi-decade project, estimated at $25 billion, is expected to achieve staged operational capacity between 2029 and 2046.
The NMGP is transformational at multiple levels: it will connect 13 West African nations into an integrated gas market, unlock an estimated $15–20 billion in downstream industrial investment across fertiliser, petrochemical, steel, and power sectors, and extend reliable energy access to 300–500 million people while reducing diesel dependence. For Nigeria, the pipeline offers a new export corridor, reduced flaring, monetisation of stranded gas, and diversified fiscal inflows; for Morocco, it enables energy transit status, green hydrogen blending, and positioning as Europe-facing African energy bridge. This infrastructure logic builds directly on prior successes such as the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, where Nigerian gas and Moroccan phosphates created a $1.3 billion fertiliser platform that reduced import costs, improved agricultural productivity, and strengthened food security, alongside ammonia plants and cross-border banking cooperation between UBA and Attijariwafa that facilitated capital flows and business expansion.
Nigeria contributes Africa’s largest gas reserves, PIA reforms, the Dangote Refinery, and its Decade of Gas strategy, while Morocco offers political stability, European proximity, renewable energy leadership, and industrial logistics capability. Together, they present global markets with energy security diversification, a stable Atlantic corridor, and a balanced transition partner. As Ojulari framed it: “Harmonised pricing systems, transit protocols, and joint technical regulations will reduce investment friction, safeguard cross-border assets, and ensure equitable access.” Challenges remain substantial: $25 billion in financing, coastal security risks, political coordination across 13 nations, environmental scrutiny, gas demand volatility, and competition from LNG alternatives. Yet the pipeline’s coastal routing insulates it from the insurgency exposure facing trans-Saharan alternatives, and its integration potential far exceeds comparable projects. Future opportunities include gas-to-power industrial corridors, green hydrogen blending via Morocco, LNG re-export potential, integrated fertiliser value chains, AfCFTA-enabled manufacturing clusters, and African-led capital mobilisation platforms, positioning the pipeline as the backbone of a wider Atlantic African Energy Corridor.
Africa’s energy transition will not be determined by renewables alone, but by whether the continent can build shared infrastructure, harmonise policy, and scale industrial capacity. The Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline represents that ambition translated into steel and right-of-way. It is not simply about moving gas; it is about moving capital, moving trust, and moving Africa toward industrial coherence. As Ojulari concluded: “Continental cooperation, integrated gas markets, and sustained regional diplomacy are not optional; they are central to ensuring that no African nation is left behind in the energy transition.” If executed with discipline, transparency, and coordinated policy, the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline will become one of the defining infrastructure projects of 21st-century Africa, linking reserves to markets and ambition to an enduring structure.
