Sopuruchi Onwuka

Nigeria’s gas production and export began the second half of the year on bullish note with both production and export posting new records while fluctuation in domestic consumption volumes posted disturbing signals.

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Latest industry production dashboard made available to the media from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed that overall gas production increased year-to-date in July to an average of 7.59 billion standard cubic feet per day (Bscf/d), up from 6.99 Bscf/d in the same period in 2024, and from 6.91 Bscf/d in the same period in 2023.

According to the figures published by the NUPRC, some 63 percent of the total gas production came from operated joint ventures; 24 percent came from production sharing contracts; sole risk ventures accounted for 10 percent of the gas output; and marginal field operations contributed 3 percent.

The dashboard did not come with explanation on what percentage of the total produced volume is not associated with oil production, indicating however that non-associated gas production might be insignificant.

Oracle Intelligence reports that non-associated gas development is in its infancy in Nigeria’s maturing basins where produced associated has been traditionally flared until recent times when transformative policies began to influence reluctant operators to include gas value capturing in their field work programmes.

Despite all the commercial incentives on gas development and monetization, only few companies including Platform Petroleum, Seplat Energy Plc and Shell are bold with non-associated gas development investments.

Most of the captured gas from oil production sites and non-associated gas developments associated with Shell are billed to meet feedgas obligations to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCO), industrial customers, national gas transmission grid pipelines and power plants under designated to the domestic gas obligation.

In the period to July, the NLNG Limited and WAGPCO exported 35.88 percent of the volume produced; and improvement from the 35.28 percent recorded for the two companies in 2024 and the 34.08 percent recorded for them in 2023.

Oilfield gas utilization for fuel, enhanced oil production and re-injection for storage rebounded in the period to 29.13 percent after diving to 28.21 percent in 2024, down from 32.32 percent recorded in 2023.

Unfortunately supply to the domestic economy took a dive in the period to 27.82 percent, down from 28.97 percent recorded in 2024. Domestic gas supply was 25.96 percent in 2023, according to the NUPRC dashboard.

On the brighter drop in volumes positively happened at the flare booms where volumes assigned to be burnt away dropped to 7.16 percent of the total gas produced. The figure is less than the 7.55 percent posted in 2024, and even less than the 7.38 percent recorded in 2023.