Nigeria is positioning itself to unlock as much as $20 billion in new investments from 70 priority gas projects over the next few years, as Africa’s biggest economy accelerates efforts to turn its vast natural gas reserves into a springboard for industrialization, job creation, and energy security.
The projects, drawn from a pool of more than 200 reviewed by the Decade of Gas Secretariat between July and August, represent the most viable opportunities to propel Nigeria toward its 2030 goal of becoming a gas-powered economy, according to Farouk Ahmed, chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
These identified projects represent near-term opportunities with the potential to attract over $20 billion in new investment, create tens of thousands of jobs, and catalyze industrial activity across the country, Ahmed said in Lagos on Wednesday at the opening of the Gas Utilisation Unlock Validation Series convened under the government’s Decade of Gas initiative.
The 70 projects, spread across six key demand clusters including power generation, fertilizer, petrochemicals, industrial feedstock, compressed and liquefied petroleum gas, and gas export, have a combined potential gas demand of about 15 billion standard cubic feet per day. They were selected from a broader database of 215 proposed utilization projects, which together account for an estimated 30 billion standard cubic feet per day of demand.
Ahmed noted that a three-week validation process, which began this week, will rigorously test the credibility of these projects by matching supply with demand, establishing pricing mechanisms, and identifying infrastructure and policy enablers needed to accelerate implementation. This validation series is not only an audit of projects but also a way to speed up their implementation, with each project team working closely with the regulatory authority and the Decade of Gas Secretariat.
The federal government has reiterated that Nigeria’s Decade of Gas program spanning 2021 to 2030 has already unlocked about 215 strategic upstream and midstream gas projects worth over $8 billion investments in the last 18 months, with additional $20 billion expected in the coming years. Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, stated that promoting the ease of doing business for the private sector remains one of the most critical responsibilities of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Launched in 2021, the Decade of Gas Initiative is Nigeria’s flagship energy transition agenda aimed at harnessing the country’s more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. The initiative focuses on four pillars including supply, infrastructure, pricing, and utilization, with an overarching goal of positioning gas as the primary fuel for the nation’s industrial growth and export diversification.
Sources: businessday.ng, allafrica.com