So how did it sell the world a $25bn gas pipeline? Submitted by Abed Charef on Sun, 06/28/2026 - 16:14 For all the fanfare, Morocco's Atlantic megaproject is longer, costlier and less viable than Algeria's rival pipeline, which is already under construction A man walks along a beach near storage facilities belonging to Morocco’s National Electrolysis and Petrochemical Company at the Mohammedia oil port on the Atlantic coast, near Casablanca, on 3 April 2026 (AFP) On Morocco has pulled off a remarkable media coup with its African Atlantic Gas Pipeline (AAGP) project, formerly known as the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, intended to supply Europe with gas after crossing a dozen West African and Sahelian countries. Two factors attest to the ingenuity of Morocco's achievement: the country has negligible gas resources of its own and no tradition of hydrocarbon exploitation or trade.
Despite this, it was able to present a project worth tens of billions of dollars, with significant geopolitical implications, and position it as a rival, or even an alternative, to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) linking Nigeria to Algeria via Niger. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine had sent Europe scrambling for alternative supplies, and Moscow's share of the bloc's pipeline gas - around 40 percent before the war - was nosediving as the EU moved to ban Russian imports by 2027. Algeria was already filling much of that gap, supplying nearly a fifth of the EU's pipeline gas, second only to Norway.
Morocco had no gas of its own, but it could offer a route, and its energy ministry sold the pipeline as a way to make the kingdom "a major corridor linking Europe, Africa and the Atlantic basin". (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Moroccan authorities invested heavily in the project, which they presented as "the new energy backbone of the continent". For years, the matter was taken seriously, with official and unofficial diplomacy, businesspeople and lobbyists working together to attract investors and clients.
Morocco went so far as to announce "the finalisation of the gas pipeline route" and, in July 2025, to report a package of contracts and agreements related to the project. "Agreements signed, advanced technical studies, investors mobilised, and the first Moroccan section soon to be launched: the colossal gas pipeline project linking Nigeria to Mor…
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