Key takeaways:
- Morocco has opened financing talks with the US Export-Import Bank and the World Bank for the $26 billion Africa-Atlantic gas pipeline
- ECOWAS heads of state signed the pipeline’s intergovernmental agreement on July 19, clearing a key milestone for lenders
- Construction is slated to begin in 2028, with first gas expected by 2031
The US Export-Import Bank has confirmed early-stage talks with Morocco over financing for the proposed $26 billion Africa-Atlantic gas pipeline, as Rabat pushes to secure the capital needed to move the project from planning into construction.
Morocco’s ambassador to the United States, Youssef Amrani, confirmed the discussions to reporters, saying Morocco is seeking funding from both the US Exim Bank and the World Bank for the pipeline.
A spokesperson for the US Exim Bank also acknowledged preliminary talks were underway, while the World Bank declined to comment.
Amrani said recent instability in the Middle East had strengthened the case for the project.
“The Iran conflict’s disruption of Middle East energy flows has strengthened the case for the conduit that would ferry African gas to Europe,” Amrani said, describing the pipeline as “one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects under development today in Africa.”
The financing push follows a key institutional milestone. Members of the Economic Community of West African States, a 12-nation bloc, signed an intergovernmental agreement on July 19 in Freetown to formally back the pipeline.
The agreement elevates what began as a bilateral Morocco-Nigeria initiative into a regional program governed by a common legal framework, a step international lenders had been waiting on before engaging seriously on financing.
A decade-long project entering its financing phase
The pipeline was first proposed in December 2016, when Morocco’s King Mohammed VI visited Nigeria and the two countries agreed to jointly develop the project.
Led by Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines and Nigeria’s National Petroleum Company, the pipeline will run roughly 6,800 kilometers along Africa’s Atlantic coast, crossing 13 countries and linking gas deposits in Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania before connecting to the existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline that joins Morocco to Spain.
Once complete, it would be the longest underwater gas pipeline in the world, with a targeted capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually, equivalent to about 3 billion cubic feet per day.
The project’s feasibility and engineering studies have already been completed, including Front-End Engineering Design work, route surveys and environmental assessments.
The next step is corporate: ONHYM and NNPC plan to establish a jointly owned project company in Casablanca to raise financing and steer the pipeline toward a final investment decision, with a separate authority based in Abuja to govern the pipeline once operational.
Why the timing matters for Europe
The pipeline’s backers are positioning it as an alternative supply route for Europe as the continent continues shifting away from Russian gas.
However, the International Energy Agency expects European gas demand to decline by around 8% between 2024 and 2030, even as roughly 300 billion cubic meters per year of new global LNG export capacity comes online, a dynamic that suggests the pipeline’s long-term viability will depend on competitive transport costs and long-term purchase agreements rather than geopolitical urgency alone.
At an estimated $26 billion, the pipeline would require one of the largest infrastructure financing packages ever assembled in Africa.
Construction is slated to begin in 2028, with first gas expected by 2031, pending the financing commitments Morocco and Nigeria are now working to secure.
