22-02-09 The proposed trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking Nigeria and Algeria to Europe is expected to begin deliveries in 2015, the head of Nigeria's state energy company said.
Final details of a memorandum of understanding to govern the project were discussed at a meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, between Nigerian and Algerian officials, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, or NNPC, said.

The $ 12 bn (EUR 9 bn) pipeline across the Sahara desert, which will start in Nigeria and pass through Niger and Algeria to Europe, "is expected to deliver first gas around 2015," Mohammed Barkindo, head of the NNPC, said.
Mohammed Mezaine, head of the Algerian state energy company Sonatrach led his country's delegation to the meeting.

Nigeria's gas reserves, estimated at 187 tcf, are the seventh largest in the world.
President Umaru Yar'Adua's government has put forward a plan for Nigeria to earn as much revenue from gas exports as it does from crude oil, currently the mainstay of the country's economy.