Unlocking Nigeria’s Gas Potential for Industry  Growth

Blessing Ibunge writes on the outcome of  the Nigeria International Energy Summit that took place in Abuja

The 2026 Nigeria International Energy Summit recently held in Abuja, with the theme, “Energy for Peace and Prosperity: Securing our Shared Future.”

It  examined how performance-driven local content can shift Africa from compliance to genuine industrial competitiveness, focusing on approaches that strengthens indigenous capabilities, catalysing innovation, expanding high-quality employment, and deepening in-country value creation, positioning the levers as pathways to inclusive, sustainable prosperity across the continent. Also, during the panel session, participants including ministers and international representatives deliberated on how Africa can optimise its Upstream, Midstream and Downstream energy value chains while responding to evolving global demand and geopolitical dynamics.

The summit was sponsored by  the Nigeria LNG Limited, NCDMB and other giants in Oil and Gas sector in Africa, and in partnership with Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

While declaring the summit open, President Bola Tinubu, stated that energy is the invisible force that holds the modern world together, an architecture of balance amongst nations, the unseen hand that steers economies and sustains societies.

“Beyond the welfare of our people, energy is the fulcrum of stability. And the price of relegating it is one we simply cannot afford. That is why we must always be prepared to expand, reinvent and improve how we meet our energy needs, ” he said.

Represented by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, Tinubu emphasised that “Energy is a catalyst for national security, industrial growth, social inclusion and regional cooperation.

He expressed government’s commitment to building an energy system that delivers reliability, transparency, sustainability and shared prosperity.  

“This administration sustained and deepened the full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act. We consolidated its role as a live wire of sector reform and strengthened regulatory institutions to ensure clarity of roles, transparency and investor confidence. Nigeria introduced fully digital, transparent and competitive licensing rounds in the upstream sector, widely regarded as among the most credible bidding processes in our history.

“Reflecting renewed exploration and drilling momentum, the sector secured final investment decisions exceeding US$8 billion, including major offshore gas developments involving global energy companies. Pouring direct investment into the oil and gas subsector rebounded strongly, driven by regulatory certainty, fiscal reforms and improved operational guidelines and conditions.
“We also introduced a broad executive order on oil and gas investment, enabling us to unlock up to US$10 billion in capital inflows, streamline project approvals, reduce bureaucratic delays and position Nigeria as a prepared investment destination. Our long-term national ambition remains clear, 3 million barrels per day of liquid hydrocarbons and 12 billion cubic feet per day of gas by 2030”, President Tinubu added.

In his speech, the  Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpo Ekpo, said natural gas is not only critical to energy security and a pragmatic transition to a lower carbon system.

“It is fundamentally the backbone of industrialisation and economic resilient,” he said.

Speaking on the evolving energy, Ekpo noted that Africa, and particularly for Nigeria, gas represent the most immediate scalable and inclusive pathway to economic diversification, industrial growth and shared prosperity.

“Unlocking this potential requires more than abundant reserves infrastructural development or policy declaration. It requires a deliberate and strategic shift in how we conceive, design and implement local content across the gas value-chain, ” he said.
According to  the minister, local content implementation has been improving largely by compliance, meeting prescribed thresholds for contract, labour and ownership.

“While this has increased participation, it has not facilitated global competitiveness, indigenous gas companies, and advanced technological capability for deep sustainable valued retention within our economy,” he added.

He explained that in the gas industry, “this means developing robust indigenous capacity across engineering and project execution, gas processing, pipeline construction, operations and maintenance. Then fabrication, LNG and FLNG services, gas-based manufacturing and dash firm utilization. It means ensuring that in Nigeria and Africa, African companies are not only present in the value-chain but productive, innovative, bankable and export rating.”

He said for Nigeria, gas remains the cornerstone of the energy transition plan and bothers industrial agenda, from power generation, clean cooking and to fertilizers, petrochemicals, methanol and compress natural gas.

“For transportation, the gas value-chain offers parallel opportunities for job creation, industrial plastering and regional integration, ” he said, adding: “These opportunities however, can be sustained if local companies possess these requisite skills, technology, financing and governance standards to compete at that scale.”

Ekpo urged that government must continue to provide clear, stable and coordinated policies that rewards capability development and long-term investment.

“Industry operators must imbibe local capacity development into project designing. Not as an after thought but core value driver. Financial institutions must innovate to de-risk projects for indigenous firms, and our training and reserve institutions must align skills development with technical and digital demand of the modern industry.

If we get this right, local content becomes the catalyst for the emergence of Africa industrial power houses. That is companies capable of serving the domestic gas market, competing effectively in regional projects and exporting service skills, expertise beyond the country. This is how gas becomes not only a transition fuel, but a true transformational fuel,” he said.

Noting that Nigeria’s gas advantage strengthens West Africa’s energy security through LNG exports, pipelines, and cross border cooperation, while advancing a just and inclusive global energy transition, the minister disclosed the unwavering commitment of the federal government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, to building a gas-driven economy that delivers prosperity at home and credibility abroad.

In his remarks, the NCDMB Executive Secretary, Mr Felix Ogbe, stated that for Africa to be an industrial powerhouse, there must collectively and collaboratively embrace talent development, process excellence, research and development, modern manufacturing capabilities and cross border trade in goods and services. He said “Our aspiration is to evolve from “local participation” to local mastery, where African companies lead EPC projects, fabricate complex components, and export specialized services”.

Executive Vice President (EVP) of Upstream at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, Udobong Ntia, speaking during panel session, noted that the energy sector is speedily moving beyond attracting capital to expanding capital.He said the country being the energy hub of Africa had to shift beyond attracting capital and into effectively and profitably deploying and expanding its energy capacity.

He expressed that the present government at the centre has ensured stability in the energy industry, pushing for a stable environment that encourages businesses and attracts companies for investment.

“I believe with what we’re seeing right now, there’s been a lot of push. With the President himself getting involved, the Prime Minister of Nigeria as well, we see collaboration in the government funds, ensuring what the companies are looking for, things we can provide, to a certain extent. And we’ve been doing that.

“Nigeria is attracting capital. We are going beyond attracting the capital to expending the capital judiciously and making sure we make a profit at the end of the day, at the back end of it. We want to make sure we’re ensuring the competitiveness is not based on the value of the resource. Our resources are great. We want to get into how to make sure we get the capital that gets in big bucks with the number of efforts to get the biggest bank out of every buck we put in there.

My idea is to ensure we’re chasing after where we’re going to get the biggest interest from it, right? So, it’s not just so much as I’m looking at a project and I’m pouring money into the project. While attracting capital is great, we’ve got the right ecosystem, we’ve got the right environment, we’re doing the best we can to ensure that we can come in and we can sustain and retain it, but how we deploy and expand the capital is also important,” he said.

In his speech, Mr Saidu Mohammed, Authority Chief Executive, NMDPRA, Mr. Saidu Mohammed,  said gas is not a contradictory to sustainability, but a bridge to it, stating that gas is not only the transition fuel but the ultimate fuel.

 “We have to use the commodity that we have to drive to the ultimate goal of where we are going. We will approach this therefore balanced on supporting the gas expansion, encouraging carbon reduction technologies, promoting clean cooking and LPG penetration and aligning with Nigeria’s energy transition plan and that is where indications of gas and other initiatives come in.

“The propagation of CNG already is taking shape but there is a little work that we need to do to make sure that some of the cues that we observe at CNG filling stations which were known for the poor filling stations are no longer going to be there. We have to be able to solve that issue. Natural gas is not just a celebration but it is a call of action,” he said.

The climax of the summit was  an award presentation to companies and investors that have contributed hugely in the oil and gas sector. The NLNG was recognised with the “Excellence in Gas Development Award” which reflects company’s sustained leadership in gas development, driving supply growth, reducing waste, and strengthening Nigeria’s footprint in the global energy market. It also underscores the impact of deliberate, long-term investments that deliver both national value and global relevance.