Morocco seeks US Ex-Im backing for East African gas pipeline to Europe
Rabat is pursuing Washington financing for a cross-continent pipeline that would tie East African gas to European buyers.
Morocco has approached the US Export-Import Bank for financing support on a proposed pipeline that would carry East African natural gas across the continent to Europe, according to Bloomberg. The request puts Washington at the center of a project that would reroute supply toward European buyers already trying to cut their dependence on Russian and US LNG.4
The pipeline would need to traverse several jurisdictions and would face years of construction before any molecules move. But the financing bid signals Rabat is positioning itself as a transit hub for African gas, a role that would give it leverage over both upstream producers and downstream European buyers. Morocco's pitch to Washington is straightforward: a US-backed pipeline would lock in African supply for Europe without relying on American LNG terminals or tanker routes.4
The Economic Community of West African States signed an intergovernmental agreement supporting the proposed African Atlantic Gas Pipeline in July (2026-07-22), endorsing the project as "a strategic initiative to strengthen regional energy security." That endorsement covered the West African leg, but Morocco's ambitions extend further east. Rabat is now working to link East African reserves into the same corridor, creating a continent-spanning export route that would be one of the longest gas pipelines ever built.4
European buyers are watching closely. ICE Endex TTF front-month gas trades at €65.63/MWh, little changed on the session (2026-08-27), and European officials have grown wary of relying too heavily on US LNG. The EU could source as much as 80% of its LNG imports from the United States by 2028, according to forecasts by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a concentration that has made policymakers uncomfortable. African pipeline gas offers an alternative that avoids the Atlantic tanker route entirely.3
The project would also strengthen Morocco's hand in a region where Chinese investment is already deep. Firms from China have struck deals to invest at least $10bn in Moroccan electric vehicles and batteries, about 5% of all investments related to the Belt and Road Initiative worldwide over the past two years. Gotion, a battery-maker that accounts for nearly 4% of the global market, has poured over $6bn into a factory in Kenitra. US financing for the gas pipeline would give Washington a strategic foothold in a country where Beijing has moved aggressively.1
TotalEnergies already gets the equivalent of 450,000 barrels a day from the African region, almost a fifth of its hydrocarbon production and more than any other big firm. Its current plans would add another 374,000 barrels, estimates Rystad Energy. The French supermajor is restarting a controversial gas project in Uganda and building the world's longest heated pipeline there, part of a broader dash for African resources that the Morocco pipeline would complement.2
The $20bn Ugandan development, in which TotalEnergies owns a 26.5% stake, will be one of the largest foreign investments ever made on the African continent. That project alone shows the scale of capital required to move gas from the continent's interior to export markets. Morocco's pipeline would face similar engineering challenges over a far longer distance, raising questions about whether Ex-Im financing alone can make the economics work.2
Egypt and Libya are pursuing their own pipeline ambitions. They are nearing a deal to build an 800-kilometer oil pipeline connecting Tobruk with Alexandria, a project that would cost more than $1 billion and create a direct route for Libyan crude to reach Egyptian refineries. Cairo is seeking to import at least 1 million barrels of Libyan crude per month after Kuwaiti supplies were suspended. Libya is producing around 1.43 million barrels per day of crude plus 49,000 bpd of condensate, and its chairman Masoud Suleman has said the country is pushing toward 1.5 million bpd.5
That North African oil activity is a reminder that the region's energy infrastructure is being built on multiple fronts. The Morocco pipeline would compete for financing, engineering capacity, and political attention with these other projects. Washington's willingness to back one over another could shape which routes actually get built.5
The hard question is whether the economics close. US Ex-Im financing would de-risk the project for lenders, but the pipeline faces transit fees, security risks, and the challenge of securing long-term purchase commitments from European utilities that have been hesitant to sign long-term supply deals with US exporters, let alone untested African transit routes.3
European buyers have resisted committing to long-term LNG supply agreements with US exporters despite the EU phase-out of Russian gas imports and the supply crisis in the Middle East. The same caution would likely apply to a pipeline that crosses multiple African jurisdictions.3
What matters next is whether Washington's financing commitment comes with conditions on route selection or offtake agreements. A US-backed pipeline through Morocco would give Rabat a prominent seat at the table in European energy security discussions, but it would also expose Washington to the political risks of a project spanning unstable terrain.4
Ex-Im's decision on the financing request, expected in the coming months, will show whether the US is prepared to underwrite African energy infrastructure at this scale.4