“We are confident as a regional economic community that this project is viable and represents a great opportunity. We will spare no effort for its completion,” said Douka at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding relating to the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline between the ECOWAS, Nigeria and Morocco.
He also reiterated, on behalf of the President of the ECOWAS Commission Omar Aliou Touré, his full support for this regional project which will positively impact the lives of more than 400 million people. This structuring project comes at the right time, given the challenges facing our region, namely the recurrent shortage of means of transporting electrical energy, Douka pointed out.
The impact of this project is very important because it will ensure the supply of electricity in the West African zone and, in the long term, it will allow to export of natural gas as fuel in Europe, he said.
“We have followed from beginning to end the progress of feasibility studies in the various phases of validation,” Douka noted.
For the ECOWAS official, the next step is to conduct detailed studies and implementation. Once launched, it is necessary to market the project to attract public and private investors whether multilateral banks or commercial, since it is a project that extends over 6,000 km and will require a few billion dollars.
The MoU was inked by Sediko Douka, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, CEO of the National Nigerian Petroleum Company Limited “NNPC” and Amina Benkhadra, Director General of the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines “ONHYM”.
