Nigeria targets 70% of Africa’s gas demand with higher production — NUPRC

•Rejects one-size-fits-all net-zero pathway

By Obas Esiedesa, Bangkok

Nigeria is targeting a significant expansion of its natural gas production to supply up to 70 per cent of Africa’s gas demand, leveraging its estimated 215 trillion cubic feet (TCF) reserves to address energy poverty across the continent, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said.

The Commission’s Chief Executive, Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, disclosed this during a panel session at the 2026 Gastech conference in Bangkok, Thailand, saying Nigeria was positioning natural gas as a strategic fuel for domestic energy supply, exports and financing its energy transition.

Eyesan said Nigeria currently produces about eight billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas daily, describing the output as a fraction of the country’s vast resource base.

She said: “Nigeria is sitting today on 215 TCF of gas. Our current gas production is about 8 BCF. I’m sure if you just do an extrapolation, you can see that that is still a very minute resource coming out of oil and gas production.”

According to her, a substantial increase in production would enable Nigeria not only to meet rising domestic demand but also emerge as a major gas supplier to other African countries.

“By doubling our production, tripling our production, we can be meeting at least 70 per cent of Africa’s demand,” she stated.

However, Eyesan said unlocking the opportunity would require increased investment, commercially viable gas pricing and expanded infrastructure.

She said the Federal Government had introduced incentives to attract investment into the sector, while the NUPRC had continued to place oil and gas assets on the market through regular licensing rounds.

Eyesan disclosed that the Commission would launch its 2026 licensing round next month, following rounds conducted in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

She said the most recent licensing round generated significant investor interest, with 37 of the 50 assets offered taken up.

“Today, we are trying to attract investments into the gas space,” she said, stressing the need to resolve challenges around domestic gas pricing to create a commercially sustainable market for producers and consumers.

On infrastructure, Eyesan said increased government investment in recent years was beginning to unlock Nigeria’s gas potential by expanding the infrastructure needed to move the commodity to domestic and regional markets.

She said extending gas infrastructure into other West African countries could help tackle energy poverty while supporting a transition from biomass and other high-polluting fuels to lower-carbon energy sources.

“Gas definitely is a transition, not just for Nigeria, but for Africa, for the continent at large,” she said. 

Rejects uniform net-zero pathway

The NUPRC chief also rejected calls for a uniform pathway to net-zero emissions across Africa, arguing that differences in countries’ resource endowments, economic conditions and development priorities made a single approach impractical.

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