The “gas battle” that fuels tension in the western Mediterranean is taking a new turn after Morocco intends to build a business that could cost it nearly half of its gross domestic product, but in return will guarantee it its energy independence.
newspaper quoted “ElconfidentialThe Spanish said that the battle moved 7000 km south of the western Mediterranean, and exactly to Nigeria, which entered into an agreement with Morocco.
On Wednesday, Australian company WorleyParsons announced that it had signed a contract with the two countries to conduct preliminary technical studies of the gas pipeline that will connect them by sea.
The pipeline is expected to cross the territorial waters of 13 countries, 11 of which are from West Africa, and is expected to extend to Europe via Spain.
The newspaper points out that although the project was discussed in 2016 during a visit by the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI to Abuja, the acceleration of the project now is due to the current tension with Algeria and the suspension of work on the Maghreb pipeline.
With the pipeline from Nigeria, Morocco will not only save costs, as conventional gas is much cheaper than LNG, but will significantly reduce its dependence on both Algeria and Spain and strengthen its position as a geopolitical power in the region. According to the newspaper.
The project will cost a budget of between 23 thousand and 47 thousand million euros, and initially proposed to link Nigeria and Morocco, but the Australian company stated that it seeks to propose it to countries along the way to export its gas to neighboring countries and Europe.
The huge project is operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines in Morocco, and if completed, it will become the second longest gas pipeline in the world (7,000 km), after the pipeline linking Central Asia with eastern China (8,700 km), and the largest pipeline that passes under the surface Sea.
The Moroccan move comes in light of Algeria’s suspension last October of the Maghreb pipeline passing through the kingdom.
Morocco was collecting fees for the transit of Algerian gas in the form of quantities of gas at preferential prices, providing the Kingdom with 97% of its needs of this vital substance.
Morocco is seeking to exploit the pipeline in reverse and use it to supply gas from the international market, passing through Spain, which agreed to help it in this.
And last March, the Spanish Ministry of Environmental Transformation said in a statement that “Morocco requested support to ensure its energy security on the basis of our trade relations, and Spain responded positively, as it would have done with any partner or neighbor.”
“Morocco will be able to obtain liquefied natural gas from international markets, deliver it to a reconversion plant on the Spanish peninsula, and use the Maghreb Gas Pipeline (GME) to transport it to its territory,” she added, without giving any details on the timetable for this agreement or Quantities of gas that will be transported through this line.
On Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry of Energy informed the Algerian Energy Minister, Mohamed Arkab, of Madrid’s decision to authorize the reverse flow of gas through the Maghreb-European gas pipeline, and the start of the process will start from today or tomorrow.
Fearing Spain’s supply of Algerian gas to Morocco, the Algerian Ministry of Energy and Mines warned its Spanish counterpart that “every supply of Algerian natural gas destined for Spain for any destination not stipulated in the contract is considered a violation of one of its clauses, which may lead to the cancellation of the contract linking the Algerian company Sonatrach to its Spanish customers.”
It is noteworthy that last October, the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, ordered the non-renewal of the Maghreb pipeline passing through Morocco to Spain, due to what he described as “aggressive practices by the Kingdom of Morocco”, a month after the severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries.