The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said Nigeria is seeing stronger demand for its liquefied natural gas cargoes.
The NNPC Executive Vice President, Olalekan Ogunleye, said this on Wednesday at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, according to Reuters.
This comes as energy disruptions from the war in the Middle East have opened commercial opportunities for the country.
What they are saying
Buyers are increasingly looking to Nigeria because of its proximity to key consuming nations and the scale of its gas reserves, the senior NNPC executive said.
Ogunleye said demand for natural gas has proven resilient, adding that current geopolitical tensions would not derail its growth.
- “We are right in the middle of the market. We are 10 sailing days from Europe, close to the Atlantic Basin and close to Asia,” Ogunleye said
- “We see commercial opportunities on top of the fact that we have the most gas reserves in Africa.”
He said the NNPC has started talks on adding two new LNG trains.
He added that the company is also pursuing a 12 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) LNG project, alongside gas-based industrial hubs, to tap more than 200 trillion cubic feet of reserves in Nigeria.
- Nigeria LNG (NLNG), in which the NNPC is the largest shareholder, can export up to 22 million metric tons per year and is building a seventh production train scheduled for completion in 2027.
- Martin Houston, a longtime LNG developer and consultant, said the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has heightened the need for buyers to diversify supply risk.
He said African and South American countries with gas already discovered but without a current market could benefit from rising interest in new LNG supply, including floating LNG options.
Backstory
Around January last year, Nigeria’s exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) dropped by 20%, according to data from Bloomberg ship-tracking.
- The hit to the country’s LNG exports was due to persistent vandalism and sabotage of pipelines in the Niger Delta region.
- Nigeria LNG Ltd. told Bloomberg that sabotage and vandalism had curtailed gas supplies to its plant, affecting scheduled shipments.
Nigeria’s gas exports have faced disruptions due to security issues in the Niger Delta region, although shipments from the NLNG complex saw a rebound in 2024.
What you should know
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC Ltd), Bayo Ojulari, has said Nigeria could increase its crude oil production by about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the next few months.
- The disclosure was made during an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston.
- Ojulari said Nigeria is gradually building capacity to boost production, although it may not match the scale of leading oil producers.
He noted that Nigeria averaged about 1.6 million to 1.7 million bpd last year, adding that the country is targeting an average production of 1.8 million bpd in 2026.
