ACCRA, May 16 (Reuters) - Environmentalists in Ghana have expressed alarm at what they describe as the ``environmental unfriendliness'' of a project to take natural gas from Nigeria by pipeline to three other West African countries.

Friends of the Earth-Ghana (FOE) said on Tuesday it was improper that an environmental impact assessment of the project had not been given greater priority in feasibility studies.

``Environmental assessment should precede any work at all,'' FOE programme co-ordinator Noble Wadzah told Reuters.

``Communities have not been involved even though it's going to go through their back yards,'' Wadzah said.

He said Nigerian environmentalists had estimated that 50,000 families in the four countries could be displaced.

The gas pipeline project involves national petroleum corporations from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Togo, as well as oil companies Shell (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) and Chevron (NYSE:CHV - news).

The $400 million project involves tapping natural gas from Nigeria, where it is otherwise flared into the atmosphere and transporting it via an offshore pipeline to the participating countries.