The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia are some of the international interests showing willingness to buy into the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project, the federal government has said.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who dropped the hint after paying Sallah homage on President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, however, noted that the project would not be completed before the expiration of the administration.

He said the government is shopping for funding partners to extend the West African Gas Pipeline project ffrom Ghana to Morocco and connect it to the the European market.

Providing an update on the project, Sylva said: “The Nigerian, Morocco gas pipeline is a continuation of the West African Gas Pipeline project, which has already gotten to Ghana. It is already operational connecting Nigeria to Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

“We want to continue that same pipeline all the way to Morocco down the coast. Right now, we are still at the level of studies, and of course, we are at the level of securing the funding for this project and a lot of people are indicating interest.”

Speaking about securing funding partners, the minister said: “We have not totally concluded on the financial arrangement. I have just said that a lot of people are showing interest. There is a lot of international investors’ interest in the project, but we have not really identified investors that we want to go with.

“For the moment, the two investors in this project are Nigeria and Morocco, we are the two countries that are ready to come together to develop this pipeline and a lot of other investors are also interested in having a piece of the action.

“The Russians were with me in the office last week, they are very desirous to invest in this project and there’re lots of other people who are also desirous to invest in the project because this is a pipeline that is going to take our gas all through a lot of countries in Africa and also, all the way to the edge of the African continent where we can have access to the European market as well.

“OPEC is interested in the project and has indicated its interest, but there are a lot of other people that have indicated interest as well.”