The Trans-Saharan gas pipeline has been in development for several decades. However, a key challenge for the project is the absence of a clear economic framework to demonstrate its financial viability, Vsevolod Sviridov, Deputy Director Center for African Studies, HSE, Moscow, tells Global South Pole.
Sviridov attributes this uncertainty to the fact that Nigerian gas, the primary resource for the project, is still largely controlled by long-established Western oil companies that have been operating in the country since colonial times.
“These companies and their respective countries are interested in exporting gas from Nigeria by liquefied natural gas [LNG]. It's when natural gas is frozen and gas turns into liquid and then transported by ships to Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other countries. And they are not interested in this gas being injected into the pipeline,” he says.
The expert further asserts that there is a narrative created and sponsored by the West that in Africa “there is no potential for big local markets.” However, he believes this project has a lot to offer the continent in terms of trade and regional cooperation.
“If this project could develop regional market in northern Nigeria, in Niger, South Algeria, this could showcase the potential that the role of Africa in global energy markets, the role of African markets themselves are growing and they are self-sufficient. So there is no need to export; there is a need to invest in local consumption. So this project would be a role model here,” Sviridov ponders.
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