Algeria reopens the Trans Saharan pipeline, and a Sahel thaw begins

A surprise reconciliation with Niger revived a giant gas project, and reset the regional board.

After months of frost following a drone incident, Algeria and Niger's military leadership patched up relations and committed to relaunch the Trans Saharan Gas Pipeline, the long dreamed route carrying Nigerian gas north to the Mediterranean. Coming weeks after Europe banned Russian gas, the timing was no accident.

For Algiers, where gas accounts for the overwhelming share of exports, the calculation is close to existential. The reconciliation protects its standing as Europe's nearby supplier and counters the rival Atlantic route championed by Morocco. Sonatrach is pouring money into fields and hubs to keep the volumes flowing.

The thaw is born of necessity rather than warmth, and the Sahel remains volatile ground on which to build a pipeline. But it has shifted the regional contest, and reminded everyone that energy, more than ideology, now drives Algerian diplomacy