Page 4 - AfrOil Week 37 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Nigeria touts multiple

gas export options

Officials in Abuja are talking up plans to export gas
via pipelines to Morocco and Algeria and in the

form of LNG – and are pledging to send more gas to

Europe in the coming winter

NIGERIA SEVERAL West African states have joined with of the Gaz-Maghreb Europe (GME) pipeline,
Morocco in taking a step towards enabling the which was originally built to pump gas from
WHAT: construction of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipe- Algeria’s Hassi R’Mel field to Spain. (Algerian
Nigeria has signed MoUs line (NMGP), a natural gas transportation net- gas flows began declining sharply in the autumn
on a major pipeline work capable of handling around 3bn cubic feet of 2021 amidst diplomatic and political disputes
project with Morocco, (85mn cubic metres) per day, or 31 bcm per year. between Algiers and Rabat, and GME is now
Senegal, Mauritania and NMGP would follow a 7,000-km route through used mostly in the reverse direction, to facili-
ECOWAS. the offshore zones of more than a dozen West tate deliveries of regasified LNG from Spain to
and North African countries – Nigeria, Benin, Morocco.)
WHY: Togo, Ghana, Côte d’ Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Presumably Nigeria will be providing the
NMGP is one of several Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, largest portion of the gas flowing through
initiatives aimed at Mauritania, Western Sahara and Morocco. NMGP. Its proven gas reserves are Africa’s larg-
boosting Nigeria’s ability On September 15, representatives of the par- est at 206.53 trillion cubic feet (5.849 trillion
to export more gas, ties involved signed multiple memoranda of cubic metres), and government officials believe
particularly to European understanding (MoUs) on the project. One was the number could rise to 600 tcf (17 tcm) as
markets. signed between Nigerian National Petroleum exploration of deepwater and frontier basins
Co. Ltd (NNPCL), Morocco’s Office National moves forward. Senegal, by comparison, has
WHAT NEXT: des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) 120 tcf (3.4 tcm) in proven reserves, while Mau-
Both of the major and a regional organisation known as the ritania has estimated its own reserves, which
pipeline projects under Economic Community of West African States have yet to be thoroughly explored, at 100 tcf
consideration face (ECOWAS). A second was signed between (2.83 tcm) or more.
serious challenges, while NNPCL, ONHYM and Petrosen, the national But NGMP is not Nigeria’s only large-scale
NLNG’s expansion project oil company (NOC) of Senegal, and a third was commitment. The country is also looking to
is still in progress, and signed between NNPCL, ONHYM and Societe expand the volume of gas it exports in the form Several West
plans to boost production Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH), the of LNG and wants to build another high-capac-
remain vague. NOC of Mauritania. ity pipeline to Europe via Niger and Algeria. African states
Mele Kyari, the group CEO, said at the sign- have joined
ing ceremony that NMGP would help reduce TSGP and Train 7
energy poverty in Africa by increasing the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timi- with Morocco
amount of gas available for local consumption. pre Sylva mentioned both initiatives on Septem-
The project will also give a boost to West African ber 7 during the Gastech 2022 conference in in taking a step
economies through “the creation of wealth and Milan.
improvement in the standard of living, integra- With respect to NLNG, Sylva declared that towards enabling
tion of the economies within the region, miti- Nigeria would be in a position to supply more the construction
gation against desertification and other benefits LNG to Europe by next winter. He did not say
that will accrue as a result of reduction in carbon exactly how much more LNG would be arriving, of the Nigeria-
emission,” he said. whether the extra gas could be expected before
the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2023, Morocco Gas
Eyes on the European market or how the increase would be accomplished.
Despite these local benefits, though, NMGP’s However, he did state that the country planned Pipeline.
primary purpose is serving the European gas to ramp gas production up by more than 50%
market, where demand is higher and buyers are from the current level of 8 bcf (226.6 mcm) per
willing to pay more. day to 12.2 bcf (345.5 mcm) per day.
NMGP’s backers will accomplish this goal by Presumably, most (or even all) of these addi-
linking the pipeline to the Moroccan section tional volumes are meant to be sent to Europe

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 15•September•2022