Nigeria’s biggest gas company has crossed another major milestone. After generating US$150 billion in revenue and exporting more than 6,000 LNG cargoes, NLNG is now preparing for an expansion that could further strengthen the country’s position in the global gas market.

For decades, Nigeria has been known primarily as an oil-producing nation. Increasingly, however, natural gas is becoming one of its biggest economic assets.

Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) says it has generated more than US$150 billion in cumulative revenue since operations began, exported over 6,000 liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes to customers worldwide and returned billions of dollars to government through dividends and taxes.

The company disclosed the figures during a media engagement by its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adeleye Falade, describing the achievements as evidence of how natural gas is becoming a major contributor to Nigeria’s economy.

According to Falade, NLNG has paid US$47.2 billion in dividends to shareholders, remitted more than US$10 billion in taxes to the Federal Government and built an asset base valued at about US$23 billion since commencing operations.

The Federal Government, which owns a 49 percent stake in the company, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of those earnings through dividends, taxes and revenues generated from upstream gas production.

Falade explained that although many Nigerians associate NLNG with gas production, the company does not produce natural gas itself. Instead, it purchases gas from upstream producers, processes and liquefies it at its Bonny Island facility before transporting and marketing it to customers across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and other international markets.

Today, NLNG operates six liquefaction trains with a combined production capacity of 22 million tonnes per annum, making its Bonny Island plant the largest industrial complex in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company also operates a fleet of 22 specialised vessels supporting LNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transportation.

The company is now looking beyond its existing operations. Falade said the ongoing Train 7 project remains NLNG’s immediate priority and will increase production capacity by 35 percent, from 22 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes annually, once completed.

The expansion is also expected to boost domestic cooking gas supply significantly. According to him, Train 7 will increase LPG production by 50 percent, adding another 250,000 tonnes annually for the Nigerian market while supporting about 16,000 workers currently engaged on the project.

Looking further ahead, NLNG has already begun preliminary discussions around the possible development of Trains 8, 9 and 10, signalling plans for another phase of long-term expansion. Beyond exports, the company says it is playing a growing role in Nigeria’s domestic energy market.

Falade disclosed that NLNG supplied a record 500,000 tonnes of cooking gas to Nigerians last year, the highest annual volume since domestic LPG distribution began in 2005. The company now supplies roughly one-third of Nigeria’s LPG demand, compared with just 70,000 tonnes when the programme started.

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Since 2022, NLNG has dedicated all of its LPG production to the domestic market rather than exporting it, a move aimed at improving access to cleaner cooking fuel while reducing dependence on firewood and other biomass fuels. The company also highlighted its contribution to reducing gas flaring.

According to Falade, when NLNG was established, Nigeria flared about 65 percent of the associated gas produced alongside crude oil. Today, that figure has fallen to below 20 percent, partly because NLNG created a commercial gas market that would otherwise have been burnt off. Despite the progress, Falade believes Nigeria is only beginning to unlock its gas potential.

He noted that Nigeria has about 209 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, with estimates suggesting another 600 trillion cubic feet remain to be proven. Yet countries with far smaller gas reserves, including Australia and Malaysia, currently operate much larger LNG export capacities.

“We are a gas country with some oil,” he said, arguing that expanding LNG infrastructure will be critical if Nigeria hopes to compete more effectively in the global gas market.

The latest figures reinforce the growing importance of natural gas to Nigeria’s economic diversification strategy. While crude oil continues to dominate government revenues, LNG exports, domestic gas supply and planned expansion projects are positioning gas as one of the country’s strongest long-term growth industries.

Meiza Nigeria