TSGP: a trans-Saharan mirage

France's Total says it wants to build another gas-export facility in Nigeria. But piping natural gas across the Sahara desert to supply Europe faces big problems, writes Derek Brower

Europe's energy planners, stuck in their rut of energy-security worries, like the sound of it. So, apparently, do five of the world's biggest energy companies. But the project – a pipeline to export gas across the Sahara desert, from the Niger Delta through Algeria and on to Europe – will be expensive, difficult to arrange and a target for saboteurs. It might even not make much sense for Nigeria, the country that would provide the gas. Yet the project, which has been under discussion for decades, has a bit of momentum behind it again. Last month, France's Total said it wanted to participate in building the trans-Sahara gas pipeline (TSGP). Russia's Gazprom and Anglo-Dutch major Shell are als