Nigeria-Niger-Algeria gas pipeline: challenges and stakes

In the race to supply natural gas to Europe, Morocco, Algeria, Russia, Nigeria, Türkiye, Qatar, and Niger are all involved. With an existing pipeline network to Europe, does Algeria have an advantage?

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Gas from Nigeria could supply Europe via a pipeline through Algeria, or a pipeline through Morocco. One has several advantages.

Nigeria-Niger-Algeria gas pipeline: challenges and stakes

Rabia Abdul Salam

last update on 04 Jun 2025

As energy infrastructure projects go, building a 4,120km gas pipeline from Nigeria to Europe via Algeria’s Mediterranean coast and the Sahara Desert is among those considered more challenging. Be that as it may, it seems to be moving ahead.

The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), which would pass through Niger, is intended to provide European energy customers with Nigerian gas, but its backers are competing with other gas supply options, including the Dolphin Gas Project taking Qatari gas to Europe via Türkiye.

Africa’s most populous country with 230 million people, Nigeria also has Africa’s biggest gas reserves, estimated at 5.94 trillion cubic metres, which is more than enough to meet some European needs. Specialists think it could pump 30 billion cubic metres of gas annually through the pipeline.

Domestically, this would give Nigeria a much-needed financial boost. It is currently grappling with high inflation, currency depreciation, weak economic growth, and mounting domestic and foreign debt, particularly from the World Bank and the African Development Fund. Algeria and Niger would also benefit from the pipeline running through their territories, in part by collecting transit fees.

A long time coming

The idea behind the TSGP is far from new, having first been proposed in the early 1970s. Nigeria and Algeria initiated the project in 2002. In 2006, a feasibility study showed that it was viable. Niger was admitted in 2008 as a co-sponsor. According to a 2016 document by the Economic Commission of the African Union, the project is one of the 16 key infrastructure projects included in the continent’s integration programme.

Algeria’s strategic advantage lies in its existing connection to the Medgaz submarine pipeline that runs under the Mediterranean Sea, from the Algerian coast to the Spanish coast. It begins at Algeria’s giant Hassi R’Mel gas fields, traverses almost 550km to the port of Béni Saf, and emerges in Almeria, Spain, after travelling 210km underwater.

With gas reserves estimated at 5.94 trillion cubic metres, Nigeria could pump 30 billion cubic metres of gas annually through the Algeria pipeline

Statistics show that Algeria has maintained its position as the second-largest supplier of pipeline gas to the European Union after Norway. Its exports rose by 1.9% in February to reach 92.6 million cubic metres per day (mcm/day), up from 90.9 mcm/day the previous month. Of this volume, Algeria exported 62.6 mcm/day to Italy, a monthly increase of 3.5%, while supplies to Spain remained around 30 mcm/day.

Pipeline rivals

There are big hurdles, however. Several countries, including Morocco, see the TSGP as a threat to their energy ambitions. Some believe Russia might finance a project through Morocco to extend its influence in the European gas market.

Algerian energy expert Belmekki Mohamed Elmekki said Russia "does not hide its intention to fund the project, specifically via Morocco," but added that "Europe firmly rejects this". African gas is being sough in part because European countries have turned their back on Russian energy ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In June 2022, shortly after the invasion, Nigeria's petroleum minister Timipre Sylva said Russia had expressed an interest in the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) project. "The Russians were in my office, and were very keen on investing," he said.

Getty Images — A gas station of Nigerian oil company Eni (NAOC) in Rivers State, Nigeria, on 28 September 2015.

It is not for the faint-hearted. The NMGP would stretch an eye-watering 5,660km across 11 African countries, cost up to $50bn, involve a lengthy maritime segment, and take a decade to complete, whereas stretches of the shorter, cheaper, three-nation TSGP are already built.

Money and interests

Very few countries could afford such risky desert projects, meaning the NMGP faces significant financing hurdles. "It's extremely hard to find a serious backer, especially in today's grim global economic climate," said Elmekki. Security issues in transit countries may also hinder implementation and scare would-be investors off.

Russia and Morocco are not alone in their wariness of the TSGP. Qatari and Turkish interests are also at odds with the project, given that Qatar is pursuing an alternative European supply route through Türkiye by way of the Dolphin Gas Project.

The rival Nigeria-Morocco pipeline would stretch an eye-watering 5,660km across 11 African countries, cost $50bn, and take a decade to complete

Gas supplies to Europe used to run through Ukraine, but since Russia's invasion in 2022, Türkiye is now the only viable transit country for gas exports to Europe via the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines, both of which cross the Black Sea.

In mid-December, Türkiye's Anadolu Agency quoted a Turkish energy expert as saying the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had "revived the Qatar-Türkiye pipeline project, which Assad strongly opposed, mainly because he believed it directly threatened the interests of his ally, Russia—then Europe's main gas supplier".

Niger equivocates

Another complication facing the TSGP project is the strained relations between Algeria and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation of the three African nations: Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. In April, Algeria downed a Malian drone. The AES accused it of "an act of aggression against the entire confederation". In the ensuing melee, airspace was closed and ambassadors were withdrawn.

There are now rumours that Niger will pull out of the TSGP project. Elmekki acknowledged that the diplomatic rift had "caused confusion and instability," explaining how Morocco was trying to take advantage by strengthening its ties to Mali.

Yet despite the political and security pressures, both Nigeria and Niger are likely to remain within the TSGP project, given the significant economic benefits they stand to gain from it. The pipeline remains the most feasible—it crosses only three countries, which reduces costs, and simplifies the signing of gas purchase agreements.

On 11 February 2025, Algeria hosted officials from Nigeria and Niger for the fourth ministerial meeting of the TSGP Steering Committee, signing agreements aimed at accelerating the project's implementation. This reflects their commitment to making the pipeline a reality, strengthening Africa's role as a major natural gas supplier to the European market. Half a century after it was first envisaged, the race is on.

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