Nigeria Pushes Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Projects to Power Regional Integration
Nigeria’s national oil company is spearheading ambitious gas pipeline initiatives designed to transform West Africa’s energy landscape and connect the continent to European markets, leveraging the country’s vast natural gas reserves to drive regional development and industrial growth.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is advancing multiple transcontinental pipeline projects centered on enhancing upstream production sustainability, expanding natural gas processing and transportation infrastructure, and upgrading refining assets to support chemical production and premium hydrocarbon outputs. The strategy focuses on both boosting domestic supply and establishing international energy corridors.
The 2.8 billion dollar Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipeline, a 614-kilometer line designed to supply gas to power plants and industries across Northern Nigeria, represents a cornerstone of domestic expansion efforts. With technically challenging segments such as the River Niger crossing completed in 2025, the AKK pipeline is expected to be activated for export in early 2026. The achievement of completing the main line welding, including the long-delayed River Niger crossing, paves the way for connecting the pipeline and delivering gas across northern Nigeria to support industrial and economic activities.
Another critical domestic project, the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipeline, connects eastern gas fields to western networks, facilitating nationwide supply and linking to the AKK system. These projects are essential for Nigeria’s gas-to-power goals, economic growth, and industrial revival, reducing reliance on diesel and premium motor spirit.
The most ambitious undertaking remains the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, a proposed nearly 6,000-kilometer project to transport natural gas from Nigeria through 13 West African countries to Morocco and onward to Europe. Initially proposed in a December 2016 agreement between NNPC and Morocco’s Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines, the pipeline is estimated to cost 25 billion dollars and would be completed in stages over 25 years. A feasibility study commenced in August 2017, and Morocco is reportedly in active talks with Nigeria to advance the project.
Bashir Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, described the Nigeria-Morocco pipeline as central to the company’s continental expansion strategy, designed to connect African nations through energy infrastructure and drive industrial growth. The project will build on the existing West African Gas Pipeline network, which already links Nigeria to Ghana, extending it first to Côte d’Ivoire and progressively northward through coastal nations to Morocco.
The infrastructure will enable each country along the corridor to feed in gas from local fields and off-take gas to power industries and communities, creating a mutually beneficial regional gas market. From Morocco, the system will eventually connect to Europe, opening a new energy corridor from Africa to global markets. The project aims to monetize Nigeria’s vast gas reserves, estimated at more than 600 trillion cubic feet, while enabling other African countries with smaller reserves to participate in shared infrastructure promoting regional development.
NNPC is simultaneously advancing domestic gas initiatives including compressed natural gas for transportation and liquefied petroleum gas for households to deepen gas utilization and reduce dependence on biomass. Ojulari emphasized that gas development remains central to Africa’s industrial future, describing it as the continent’s pathway to full industrialization, providing revenue, creating jobs through industrial parks, and connecting new businesses.
Once the AKK pipeline becomes operational, officials expect to see industrial parks emerge, supporting fertilizer plants, power generation, and gas-based industries in Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, and Ajaokuta. The project, first conceived in 2008, is expected to significantly improve energy access in northern Nigeria, where persistent power shortages and weak infrastructure have constrained industrial development for decades.
Udy Ntia, Executive Vice President for Upstream at NNPC, emphasized a shift toward partnership-driven growth between national and international oil companies, calling for collaboration over competition. He described co-investment as the new financing model, with NNPC stepping in as a co-investor to ensure projects are bankable and decisions are made quickly in a rapidly changing environment.
The completion of the AKK pipeline network is expected to expand economic opportunities, enhance power supply, and support national industrialization efforts, contributing to improved energy and economic security. NNPC attributes its improved operational outlook to reforms introduced under the Petroleum Industry Act, which repositioned the company as a commercially driven entity operating without reliance on federal allocations.
Source: newsdiaryonline.com
