A pipeline that will transport natural gas from Nigeria to Morocco will stretch nearly 1,672 kilometres inside the North African Arab country, a Moroccan official has said. 

Eman Mansouri, an official at the government’s National Office for Hydrocarbons and Minerals, said the pipeline would transport nearly 5,400 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Morocco, which will also supply Spain and other European countries. 

“The part of the gasline inside Morocco will be around 1,672 km long…this pipeline will be used to transport gas produced in Nigeria and other African states to Europe,” she told Morocco’s Hespress newspaper. 

Mansouri said the line would be constructed in six phases and that supplies could be increased at a later stage. 

Reports said in early June that Nigeria’s government has directed its state-run oil company NNPC to press ahead with a deal on gasline to Europe through Morocco. 

Africa’s gas resources are increasingly in the spotlight as the European Union looks to stop importing Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine in February.