Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, have signed an agreement approving the construction of a gas pipeline linking Nigeria and Morocco, in one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects on the continent.
The agreement was signed at the 69th Summit of the regional bloc, held in Sierra Leone, giving the long-discussed project a fresh push at the level of West African heads of state and government.
The roughly 6,000-kilometre Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline is designed to cross 13 countries along Africa's Atlantic coast, in a route that would tie together a large stretch of the West African seaboard.
According to the plan, the pipeline would carry Nigerian gas to Morocco before connecting to the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, opening a potential path for West African gas to reach markets further afield.
Morocco's national hydrocarbons office, ONHYM, and Nigeria's state oil company, NNPC, said the project aims to link West Africa's gas resources to major regional markets, making fuller use of the region's energy reserves.
In a statement, the partners said the project is expected to strengthen the integration of African energy markets and to create a new development corridor linking West Africa, the Sahel, Morocco and Europe.
Construction of the pipeline is expected to begin in 2028, with the first gas deliveries targeted for 2031, marking the timeline that the partners are now working towards after years of planning.