Launch Of The Algerian-Nigerian Gas Pipeline Buries Its Moroccan Counterpart!

In a remarkable development, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during the joint press conference held with his Nigerien counterpart, President Abdourahamane Tiani, on Monday at El Mouradia Palace in upper Algiers, stated that the work on the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project, which connects Nigeria to Algeria via Niger, will  start immediately after the upcoming holy month of fasting of Ramadan.

President Tebboune, in the presence of his Nigerien counterpart who is on a state visit to Algeria, explained that the project will enter its “pivotal phase within the energy partnership between Algeria and Niger” in about a month from now, with Sonatrach undertaking the initial work for laying the pipeline across Nigerien territory, in preparation for the achievement of this strategic project on the ground.

This step constitutes a remarkable development in this project, which has generated much discussion over the years.

It is expected to definitively block another parallel pipeline project, long promoted by the Moroccan regime, not as a real project, but to stir controversy and attempt to obstruct the real project, which is the gas pipeline starting from Nigeria and passing through Niger, before reaching the Algerian coast on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in preparation for its extension towards Italy.

What does the announcement of Sonatrach’s commencement of the Algerian-Nigerian gas pipeline section on Nigerien territory mean? Can this be considered as the official and final signing of the death certificate for the illusory Moroccan project?

Or is Nigeria’s gas sufficient to cover the needs of the Algerian pipeline, and with it, the Moroccan pipeline project, even if it is illusory according to experts and specialists?

In this regard, energy expert Mr. Said Baghoul believes that the Moroccan-Nigerian gas pipeline remains merely an illusory project impossible to  achieve, even if there were no other parallel pipeline, because it is extremely difficult to implement on the ground. According to what is being promoted, it passes near the coasts of 14 countries bordering the Atlantic front in West Africa, exposed to all security and political risks.

The analyst specializing in energy affairs believes that the Moroccan project, which is more than six thousand kilometers long, requires enormous funds that the Moroccan regime cannot provide due to its limited financial resources.

Even if it obtains huge loans to finance it, it will not be able to realize it, because its effectiveness remains non-existent no matter how much it tries to promote it through false propaganda.

Mr. Said Baghoul said in a communication with “Echorouk”: “I can honestly assert that the Moroccan project remains merely an illusion, and it is one of the ten impossibilities to  achieve, due to the long distance and high cost, as well as problems related to security and political transformations, as it passes through many insecure, politically, and economically fragile countries.”

He added: “However, if we take into account the progress made on the Algerian-Nigerian gas pipeline, the matter becomes more than impossible for the Moroccan project, which has received much more discussion than its non-existent importance given the difficulties surrounding it from all sides, compared to the Algerian-Nigerian project, which passes through only three countries, two of which have basic gas infrastructure, namely Algeria and Nigeria, with Algeria taking responsibility for the section passing through Nigerien territory.”

In contrast, Morocco does not have any basic infrastructure in the energy sector, as it relies entirely on Spain for gas supply after Algeria stopped operating the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline in 2021, from which Morocco was supplied with Algerian gas.

This decision caused a severe deficit in the western neighbor, which launched a project to build an LNG terminal in Nador, before Moroccan King Mohammed VI canceled it due to the lack of financial resources for its completion, thereby cementing absolute dependence on Spain in the gas sector for years, and perhaps decades.