Nigeria and Algeria Thursday discussed the draft memorandum of understanding for the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, or TSGP, project in preparation for their governments' endorsements, senior officials said.
Mohammed Barkindo, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, or NNPC, said that the prospect for the project was "bright," while at a meeting with a delegation of Algeria's state oil company, SONATRACH, in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said issues in the MOU would be ironed out in preparation for it to be signed by the project's promoters, Nigeria, Algeria and the Republic of Niger.
The TSGP project, estimated to cost $15 billion, will transport 20 billion to 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the Niger Delta to Europe through Niger and Algeria. The 4,500-kilometer pipeline is expected to come on stream in 2015. Nigeria said at the project's third steering committee meeting in Abuja in February 2008 that it has kept aside 14 trillion cubic feet of gas for the project.
Barkindo said "cleaning up the MOU and getting it signed will demonstrate to the international community the commitment of our government at the highest level to pursue this project," He said the TSGP project was competitive and economically viable with multiplying effects for producing countries, communities as well as consuming nations. Mohamed Meziane, SONATRACH's managing director, said Algeria was enthusiastic to "move the project forward; it will progress with the signing of the MOU."
In April 2008, Gazprom (GAZP.RS), Russia's gas monopoly, confirmed it was holding "preliminary consultations" with Nigeria about participating in the planned project.
Meanwhile, India and Spain's Enagas SA (ENG.MC) have been invited by the Algerian government to join the project.