More than 37 percent of Nigerians lacked access to electricity as of 2024 despite the country’s estimated 600 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas potential, Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) Managing Director, Adeleye Falade, has said.

Falade disclosed this at the fifth PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja, where he identified inadequate infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, weak execution and gaps in commercial frameworks as major barriers preventing Nigeria from fully benefiting from its gas resources.

According to him, the country’s challenge is no longer whether it has sufficient gas, but whether it can create the governance structures and investment environment required to convert its resources into economic value.

“Geology creates opportunity; governance determines the outcome,” Falade said.

He said Nigeria’s gas resources could provide electricity to households, supply feedstock to industries, create jobs, generate foreign exchange and support wider economic growth, but resource abundance alone could not guarantee those outcomes.

Falade described the situation as the “Nigerian gas paradox”, noting that the country remains a major LNG exporter while struggling with unreliable electricity and inadequate gas supplies for domestic industries.

He said associated gas continued to be flared even as gas-based industries faced difficulties securing dependable supplies.

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The NLNG chief executive linked investment decisions directly to regulatory certainty, saying investors were more likely to commit capital where rules were clear, fiscal terms were competitive, contracts were respected, and regulatory processes were transparent and predictable.

He explained that greater predictability reduced investment risk and the cost of capital, making projects more commercially viable and creating room for additional infrastructure, jobs and government revenue.

Falade noted that Nigeria had taken steps to strengthen its gas policy and regulatory framework through the National Gas Policy of 2017, the Decade of Gas Initiative launched in 2021, and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) enacted that year.

However, he stressed that policies and legislation must ultimately translate into commercially viable projects and infrastructure.

His position was echoed by the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, who warned that regulatory uncertainty could discourage investment and delay projects needed to increase oil and gas production.

Osifo said investors required clear and predictable rules, while operators needed certainty, workers needed protection, host communities needed confidence, and government needed sustainable revenue.

He raised concerns about changes to the regulatory architecture following the enactment of the PIA, including the movement of some fiscal provisions to the Nigeria Revenue Act and the use of an executive order to amend provisions of petroleum legislation.

Osifo also criticised overlapping responsibilities among regulatory institutions, saying repetitive approvals, multiple inspections and conflicting directives could increase costs and cause unnecessary delays for operators.

He called for “smarter regulations” that understand commercial realities, embrace technology and eliminate unnecessary duplication, stressing that the answer was neither deregulation nor weak enforcement.

Falade said Nigeria’s gas resources could support power generation, fertiliser production, petrochemicals, LPG and manufacturing, but inadequate infrastructure continued to limit the country’s ability to capture those benefits.

He cited NLNG as an example of what long-term commercial arrangements and stable governance could deliver.

Since commencing operations in 1999, NLNG has grown into a six-train facility with capacity to produce 22 million metric tonnes per annum of LNG and five million metric tonnes of NGL.

Falade said the company had loaded more than 6,000 LNG cargoes over more than 25 years, built an asset base valued at over US$22.9 billion, generated more than US$149.6 billion in revenue, paid over $7.2 billion in dividends and contributed more than US$10.8 billion in taxes.

He said the figures represented more than the company’s corporate performance, arguing that they had translated into foreign exchange, taxes, jobs, infrastructure and other economic opportunities for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, NNPC Limited Group Chief Executive Officer, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, said the effectiveness of any regulatory framework ultimately depended on the people responsible for implementing it.

Ojulari said NNPC was focused on building a human-centred organisation where employees felt valued, heard and fairly treated, while encouraging them to challenge waste, indiscipline and reckless conduct that could undermine the company’s growth.

Osifo also called for stronger protection of workers’ rights as Nigeria seeks to attract investment and increase oil and gas production.

He demanded the protection of jobs, pensions and collective bargaining rights during acquisitions and divestments, arguing that changes in ownership should not automatically result in the loss of workers’ established rights.

He further called for stricter enforcement of local content requirements in expatriate employment, saying foreign expertise should only be used where genuine skills gaps existed and should be tied to knowledge transfer, succession plans and the development of Nigerian capacity.

The speakers agreed that unlocking Nigeria’s gas potential would require more than its vast reserves, with investment, infrastructure, reliable domestic gas supply, regulatory certainty and effective execution all critical to turning the resource into electricity, industrial production, jobs and government revenue.

Meiza Nigeria