The Russians are investing in the gas pipeline through which the EU had hoped to free itself from the Russians.

It was supposed to be one of the new energy supply routes to Europe, designed to free the continent from Russian gas, but in the end Vladimir Putin could suddenly pop up and put his stamp on the Trans-Saharan African gas pipeline as well. The project is massive: a 4,000-kilometre pipeline to transport gas from Nigeria to Algeria, via Niger, and from there to the European coast. This colossal investment is estimated at between 13 and 20 billion dollars and currently involves the Algerian state-owned company Sonatrach and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Abuja. However, things could change shortly, because on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit held in Moscow at the end of October, the Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, officially requested that Russian companies also be involved. He made this request during a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and there is already talk of contracts ready for signing. The Algerian press has circulated the name of TMK, a company specialising in the metallurgical sector for the manufacture of pipes, based in Yekaterinburg, which is subject to sanctions from both the EU and the United States. “We are prioritising the development of the economic dimension in our bilateral relations,” said Attaf, “and we have made further progress. We are discussing the sensitive issue of gas pipelines and gas transport, as well as negotiations regarding the involvement of Russian companies. Our Energy Minister has asked me to let our Russian friends know that things are progressing very well and that we will finalise the contract.” One detail of no small importance is that Russian participation in the project could be necessitated by the fact that the pipeline will have to cross Niger, where the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani is allied with the Russians, who are supporting Niamey’s war against al-Qaeda terrorists and those affiliated with the Islamic State by deploying mercenaries from the Africa Corps.

The Russians’ involvement in the gas pipeline project is a perfect snapshot of how Russia’s presence in the Sahel and across Africa amounts to a manoeuvre to encircle Europe, which is desperately seeking alternative energy sources to those provided by Moscow. The alignment between Russia and Algeria, which is growing stronger year on year, appears to serve this Russian strategy. On 26 October, at Niger’s request, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided, for the first time since 1973, to send troops beyond the country’s borders to support the military junta. The previous day, the Nigerien military junta had foiled an attempted coup plotted by some of Tchiani’s opponents. “The most immediate trigger for Algiers’ decision does not appear to have been these uprisings, but rather a severe fuel shortage that has been afflicting the country since mid-October,” wrote the Soufan Centre in a paper published two days ago. Following the deployment of its own troops, around 50 fuel tankers sent from Algeria reached the city of Agadez on 31 October, under a joint Algerian and Nigerien military escort. According to the New York-based think tank, “the emphasis placed on safeguarding energy and economic interests in this area is in line with the presence of Sonatrach – the Algerian state-owned energy company – and its wide-ranging interests in Niger”.

Certainly, Russia has given its approval to the Algerian military intervention so that it might make its own military contribution to maintaining the status quo in Niger. The invitation extended to the Russians to join the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project thus resembles a normal exchange of favours between two countries that agree on a crucial point: control of the Sahel is not merely a matter of political alliances – which are rather fluid – but of the need to manage a portfolio of economic interests. The vacuum left by the Europeans and the United States in the region could not be a more valuable gift for the Kremlin.