Nigeria and Morocco are preparing to sign a definitive intergovernmental agreement in the fourth quarter of 2026 to formally advance the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, also known as the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline. The signing will be conducted at head-of-state level, between Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Moroccan King Mohammed VI, underscoring the political weight both nations attach to the project. The announcement followed a bilateral call between Nigerian Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, during which the completion of preliminary technical studies was confirmed as a key milestone enabling the agreement to proceed.
The pipeline, first conceived a decade ago, is planned as a 6,900-kilometre hybrid offshore-onshore route running along West Africa's Atlantic coast. At a projected cost of $25 billion, it would carry a maximum capacity of 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually. According to Amina Benkhadra, head of Morocco's hydrocarbons and mining agency ONHYM, the infrastructure is designed to allocate 15 billion cubic metres to Morocco's domestic market, with the remainder directed toward energy exports to Europe. The project is explicitly framed as a geopolitical instrument to connect West African gas resources with European buyers — a priority that has sharpened considerably since European nations began diversifying away from Russian supply.
Beyond the pipeline itself, the bilateral discussions touched on joint opportunities in fertilizer production and distribution, with both ministers citing food security across the African continent as a driving rationale. To coordinate the broader economic relationship, both sides agreed on the immediate need to re-establish the Nigeria-Morocco Business Council. Officials indicated the revived council will operate within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area and draw on an existing double taxation treaty between the two countries, creating a structured commercial platform to support execution of multi-billion-dollar initiatives.
The project's scale and hybrid routing present a complex engineering and procurement challenge that will require significant international contracting capacity. The offshore segments along West Africa's coastline — passing through the territorial waters of more than a dozen countries — will demand deepwater and shallow-water pipeline installation expertise, subsea engineering, and extended project management capabilities. Onshore sections will require large-diameter pipeline construction across varied terrain. With preliminary technical studies now complete and a high-level agreement imminent, the project is beginning to transition from political ambition to procurement reality, though considerable permitting, financing, and front-end engineering work remains ahead before any contracts are awarded.