Global Arab Network | Nigeria, Algeria, Niger sign US billion Trans-Sahara pipeline

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Nigeria, Algeria, Niger sign US$10 billion Trans-Sahara pipeline

Edited by George Haddad

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 21:24

Three African countries have signed an agreement to build a US$10 billion trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking reserves in Nigeria to Europe.
The project will transport gas destined for the European market more than 4,000 kilometres from the Niger Delta, via Niger and Algeria.

Petroleum and Energy ministers Rilwan Lukman of Nigeria, Chakib Khelil of Algeria and Mohammed Abdullahi of Niger signed the deal in Abuja.

The project is scheduled to be completed by 2015, but there is still a long way to go before construction can begin.

Private sector companies have still to be brought in to help finance the project with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and Algeria's state-run oil and gas monopoly, Sonatrach.

Nigeria has natural gas reserves estimated at 180 trillion cubic feet, the seventh largest in the world.

But the country, whose long-established oil industry in the Niger Delta has been plagued by insurgents and criminal gangs for years, has not yet been able to fully develop a gas industry.

The pipeline would give those ambitions a boost. It is slated to pump 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year northward from the Niger Delta into Algeria.

There it will link up with Algeria's gas grid, and then be fed into Spain or Italy via two pipelines that run under the Mediterranean.

Two others are under construction, but more may be needed to carry the volumes planned for the trans-Sahara project.

The Europeans want the African gas to loosen their dependency on Russian gas. Moscow has disrupted gas supplies to Europe several times in recent years, often in winter.

This has caused deep anxiety across the European Union, which gets one-quarter of its gas from Russia and is seeking to ensure its future energy security.

The planned capacity of the trans-Sahara pipeline would be sufficient to weaken Russia's grip on Europe.

Russia's state-run energy giant, Gazprom, has countered by reaching an agreement with Nigeria to invest $2.5 billion in Africa's biggest oil and gas sector.

Although the Russians are not directly involved in the trans-Sahara pipeline, their mere presence in Nigeria's gas sector worries the Europeans about possible interference later.

If Gazprom does eventually secure a stake in the trans-Sahara pipeline, it would reinforce the Russians' grip on Europe's gas supply rather than widening Europe's supply base.

Gazprom -- along with Total of France, ENI of Italy and Royal Dutch Shell, which are long-established in Nigeria's oil sector -- has expressed interest in participating in the trans-Sahara project with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and Algeria's Sonatrach. (Red Mist Media, UBI)

Global Arab Network