Nigeria's state-owned NNPC Ltd. is actively soliciting international investors for the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline, a planned $25–26 billion infrastructure project designed to move up to 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from Nigeria to Europe via the Atlantic coast. NNPC Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari disclosed the investor outreach at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi, confirming that discussions are under way with potential partners including Abu Dhabi's ADNOC, following a multi-nation framework agreement signed in September.
The Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline, also referred to as the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, is jointly led by NNPC and Morocco's Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM). The proposed 6,800-kilometre route will follow the Atlantic coastline through 13 West African coastal nations, as well as Mauritania and three landlocked Sahel states, before connecting to European markets via Spain. Rather than building entirely new infrastructure, the project will be developed in phases by expanding the existing West African Gas Pipeline. Ojulari emphasised this incremental approach as a way to demonstrate operational progress to investors and offtakers: "We're not starting fresh," he said.
The pipeline is intended to monetise an estimated 20 trillion cubic feet of Nigeria's offshore gas reserves held under production-sharing contracts with major international operators including ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies. Nigeria has set a broader production target of 12 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day by 2030, and the Atlantic corridor is positioned as a central plank of that ambition.
In parallel, NNPC is advancing a separate overland route — the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline — alongside Algeria's Sonatrach and Niger's SONIDEP. That project carries an estimated cost of $10–13 billion and would run 4,327 kilometres from Kano in northern Nigeria through Niger to Algeria's existing gas network, supplying more than 20 billion cubic metres per year to European buyers. Ojulari stated that the partner nations have aligned on a funding structure and anticipate a final investment decision (FID) on this route in 2025. As of publication, the Trans-Saharan project has not yet reached FID, while the Nigeria–Morocco pipeline remains at the active investor-solicitation stage — no FID timeline for that corridor was specified.
Together, the two corridors represent more than $36 billion in potential pipeline capital expenditure and reflect a sustained Nigerian strategic push to position the country as a primary gas supplier to Europe, particularly as European buyers seek to diversify away from Russian volumes. The phased construction model for the Atlantic route and the multi-sovereign governance structure of both projects will be key variables influencing the pace at which either advances toward bankable financing.
