The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is increasing gas supply to operators across the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) value chain as part of efforts to reduce the impact of high petrol prices on Nigerians.
Executive Vice President, Gas, Power and New Energy, NNPC Ltd, Olalekan Ogunleye, disclosed this in an interview on the sidelines of the 2026 Gas Technology Exhibition and Conference (Gastech) in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.
Ogunleye said NNPC, in collaboration with upstream producers and other stakeholders, was working to increase the volume of gas available to the domestic market, with CNG operators receiving particular attention.
He said the Gas Master Plan, launched on January 30, 2026, was already producing results, with about 791 million standard cubic feet (scf) of additional gas supply recorded by the end of August.
According to him, the figure represents 17 per cent of the Federal Government’s target of delivering 4.6 billion scf of incremental gas supply between the end of 2025 and 2030.
“The job is on. But more importantly, the government and the leadership of NNPC have taken adequate steps to ensure that anyone today that invests in the CNG value chain gets the gas they require,” Ogunleye said.
“The upstream is cooperating. The CNG requirements are not humongous. They are manageable.”
Ogunleye said NNPC was enforcing domestic gas delivery obligations to ensure investors in CNG stations, mini-LNG plants and other gas-based businesses could obtain the feedstock required to operate.
“The domestic gas delivery obligations are being enforced to make sure that everyone investing in CNG manufacturing stations or mini-LNG gets the gas they require. And we’re beginning to see the fruit of that effort,” he said.
He added that NNPC was improving coordination across the gas value chain to ensure that increased production translated into higher domestic utilisation.
According to Ogunleye, expanding CNG use could have broader economic benefits, particularly for transportation and food production, because gas-powered transport can help lower the cost of moving agricultural produce and other goods across the country.
Speaking earlier at a panel session titled, “The New LNG Order: Leadership Strategies for Energy Security and Growth,” Ogunleye said dependable gas supply and the ability to deliver it to users were essential for attracting investment into Nigeria’s gas industry.
He warned that proposed gas projects could face difficulties if critical fundamentals, particularly reliable supply, were not established from the beginning.
“For us in Nigeria, our alignment is, it’s not just enough to learn, but we have to showcase learning going forward to make sure that there’s consistent focus on gas development, deliverability,” he said.
Ogunleye also listed access to financing and choosing the right partners among the factors necessary for successful gas projects.
He advised developers to work with financial institutions that understand the African market and are capable of managing the risks associated with investments on the continent.
He also urged investors to select partners who share their ambitions and have the capacity to develop projects jointly.
According to Ogunleye, Nigeria must pursue domestic gas utilisation alongside exports, stressing that both objectives should not be treated as alternatives.
“It’s a false choice to think that there’s a competition between domestic and export,” he said.
He explained that NNPC’s gas business has a dual responsibility of generating foreign exchange through exports while also using gas to support industrial development and improve domestic energy security.
Ogunleye said LNG remained important for encouraging further investment in gas development and creating value, but maintained that Nigeria must simultaneously build an integrated domestic gas market.
He said Nigeria was leveraging its more than 215 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven gas reserves to support industrialisation and strengthen its position in the global gas industry.
According to him, the Gas Master Plan is designed as a “gap-to-potential tool” aimed at moving Nigeria from its current reserve position towards more than 600 tcf, while increasing national gas production to 10 billion standard cubic feet per day (Bscf/d) by 2027 and 12 Bscf/d by 2030.
He noted that Nigeria’s LNG infrastructure had already established the country as a major supplier to international markets, with Trains 1-6 producing 22 million tonnes per annum, while Train 7 is expected to be completed in 2027.
Ogunleye said Nigeria’s location between the Atlantic Basin and Asian markets, its significant gas reserves and evolving regulatory environment provide opportunities for the country to expand both domestic utilisation and exports.
Nigeria Targets Global Gas Opportunities
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, had earlier assured international gas consumers that Nigeria was prepared to increase production and exports amid disruptions to global energy supplies caused by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ekpo gave the assurance at the conference, saying the Federal Government was taking steps to increase gas production, expand infrastructure and position Nigeria to meet growing domestic, regional and international demand.
He said the administration of President Bola Tinubu had created a more favourable investment environment in the gas sector through executive orders aimed at supporting implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The minister, however, stressed that Nigeria’s large gas reserves alone would not be enough to take advantage of opportunities arising from disruptions in global energy supplies.
“Resources alone without provision of infrastructure, technology and financing cannot take us anywhere,” Ekpo said.
He said the government was supporting investments in gas infrastructure, including through the gas infrastructure fund established under the PIA, to improve the transportation of gas from production points to markets within Nigeria and beyond.
Ekpo said Nigeria was already supplying gas to countries such as Ghana and Togo while pursuing additional export markets.
“We are engaging with the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline to supply gas to Morocco, which ultimately will get to the international market. We are in negotiation with Algeria and Equatorial Guinea,” he said.
He identified the OB3 and Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipelines as important infrastructure projects designed to connect gas-producing areas with consumers across the country.
According to him, the projects would strengthen domestic gas availability while creating infrastructure for regional exports.
Ekpo also highlighted the Decade of Gas initiative, launched in 2021, which identified about 20 projects expected to increase gas production sufficiently to meet domestic and regional requirements while leaving surplus volumes for export.
“We are progressing to catch up with the demands of our country and, of course, with the regional demands,” he said.
The minister stressed that domestic consumers would remain the priority, explaining that the government’s domestic delivery obligation requires producers to meet local demand before exporting excess gas.
He added that tax waivers had been introduced for gas-related equipment as part of efforts to attract more investment into the sector.
On domestic energy consumption, Ekpo said the government was expanding CNG adoption through the Presidential Initiative on CNG, including the deployment of CNG buses and refuelling stations across the country.
Meanwhile, Oman’s Minister of Energy and Minerals, Salim bin Nasser Al Auh, said the current global energy supply crisis was not caused by a lack of oil and gas resources or technology, but by challenges involved in moving supplies from production centres to consumers.
He said the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz had exposed weaknesses in global energy supply chains and highlighted the need for countries to diversify their sources of supply and export routes.
“The resources are there, we know where they are. The technology is available to go after these resources. We know how to produce it, how to process it, how to transport it, how to liquefy it and how to get it to the end customer,” he said.
“What we are struggling with is the ability to do the last piece, which is to get it out from where it’s produced, to where it’s needed the most.”
Al Auh said the disruption could ease over the medium term but urged energy-producing countries to develop alternative routes to reduce their exposure to strategic chokepoints.
At the opening ceremony, Thailand’s Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, warned that disruptions to global energy supplies were increasing household expenses.
He described the high cost of energy as unsustainable and called for greater investment in the sector.
Charnvirakul said an energy transition that “keeps people unable to pay their bills is unacceptable.”
