In 2021, Nigeria declared a Decade of Gas, positioning natural gas as the bridge fuel for industrialisation and the centrepiece of its energy strategy. The ambition was, and remains, the right one. With more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, Nigeria possesses Africa’s largest gas endowment and one of the world’s most significant untapped energy resources. Yet the country’s greatest constraint is its ability to build the infrastructure needed to deliver it at scale.
It is within this context that the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline, now formalised as the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, spanning thousands of kilometres across thirteen countries, should be understood. The intergovernmental agreement signed by ECOWAS heads of state in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in July 2026 marks an important diplomatic milestone. The project embodies an ambitious vision of regional integration, African energy security and the creation of a new export corridor to European markets. However, Nigeria’s own domestic gas network remains unfinished.
That tension is most evident in the domestic backbone itself. The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline, intended to extend gas supply into northern Nigeria, and the OB3 pipeline, designed to link gas supplies from the eastern Niger Delta with the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline System, are both reported to be more than 90 per cent complete. That represents genuine progress, but it has come years behind schedule. Until AKK and OB3 are fully operational and integrated, large parts of Nigeria will continue to lack reliable access to gas-fired electricity, and the expansion of compressed natural gas initiatives will remain constrained.
