ALGIERS, June 9 -- When Europe turned away from Russian gas, it did not stop needing the gas. It needed a new place to get it. Last week the answer took physical form in the far south of Algeria, where crews began laying the first stretch of a pipeline meant to carry Nigerian gas more than four thousand kilometres across the Sahara to the European market.

The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline has been talked about since the 2000s and stalled for almost as long, mostly over its price, estimated at between ten and thirteen billion dollars. The line would run from the Warri region of southern Nigeria, north through Niger, to Algeria's Hassi R'Mel hub, where existing pipes already reach Europe, a route of more than four thousand kilometres carrying...