AFTERMATH OF RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR; LINKING AFRICA TO EUROPE: AN EXPLORATION OF NIGERIA AND MORROCO GAS PIPELINE DEAL

Abstract

The aftermath of the Russian-Ukraine war and Moscow’s use of the weapon of natural gas supplies against
European countries in response to the Western sanctions had led many European states in search for alternatives to Russian gas. Russia supplies almost half of Europe’s natural gas and 30% of its oil. Moscow cut gas supplies from a number of European countries like the Netherland, Denmark and Germany, in response to none payment to Russia in rubbles. It notes that Russian war on Ukraine will be protracted, and may lead to energy crisis because Europe, with its weapon of sanctions wants to break the link with Russian gas in order to isolate Vladmir Putin’s regime. The paper seeks answers to the following questions: will Europe succeed in breaking free of its energy dependence on Russia? Can African gas, especially Algerian, Nigerian, Morocco alongside Qatar
gas, compensate for Russian gas? The study seeks to provide a critical contextualization of the Nigerian
Morocco gas pipeline linking Africa to Europe in a thorough synthesis of extent literature. The paper argues
that the Nigerian-Morocco gas pipeline project is a geopolitical and geo-economic energy infrastructure
involved in the project deploying a continuum of instruments and approaches in furtherance of a foreign
policy issue. For Nigeria it affords the country the opportunity to re-assess its gas flaring to finding ways of
exporting this gas to Europe. Nigeria has the largest gas reserves in Africa, and ranks as seventh largest holder of reserves in the world. The realization of this project would indeed constitute a true resource and alternative to
Russian gas. The study used various scholarly and media reports to provide a vivid analysis of the events and the
implications for Europe and Africa in particular. The study concludes that as the Russia- Ukraine disputes
rages on and the gas dispute in Europe intensifies, the scenario of a total cut off of Russian gas seems plausible,
prompting Europe to look for African sources of supply