Audrey Joe-Ezigbo identifies infrastructure, creditworthy demand, market access, regulatory certainty and naira financing as critical to converting Nigeria’s gas resources into a commercially viable domestic market.

The Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Falcon Corporation Limited, Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, has called for stronger coordination across regulation, infrastructure, market design and financing to transform Nigeria’s abundant gas resources into a liquid, creditworthy and investable domestic market by September 2028.

Joe-Ezigbo said Nigeria had reached a critical turning point in its domestic gas market development, with much of the policy and regulatory framework required to support growth now in place. However, she warned that the success of the next phase would depend on the industry’s ability to translate policy commitments into reliable gas delivery, timely payments and sustained investment.

Delivering the keynote address, titled “Powering Nigeria’s Domestic Gas Market: From Policy Architecture to a Functioning Market,” at the 4th Gas Investment Forum in Lagos, the Falcon chief executive identified infrastructure constraints, weak payment discipline, market access challenges and financing limitations as critical issues requiring urgent attention.

The forum brought together stakeholders across government and the gas value chain, including representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (Gas), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), NNPC Limited, the Decade of Gas Secretariat, the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), the Association of Local Distributors of Gas (ALDG), investors and industry operators.

According to Joe-Ezigbo, the Petroleum Industry Act, the evolving fiscal regime, NNPC’s Gas Master Plan 2026, the Domestic Base Price framework and the planned September 2028 transition to a willing-buyer, willing-seller market constitute important building blocks for a more commercially driven gas industry.

But she cautioned that the existence of policies and regulatory frameworks would not, by itself, deliver a functioning market without the infrastructure, contractual arrangements and financial discipline required to connect suppliers with customers and sustain investment.

“The real measure of progress will not be the size of our reserves or the number of announcements we make. It will be gas delivered to the customer, invoices paid when due, and capital that the market has enough confidence to keep. That is how Nigeria builds a functioning domestic gas market and earns global leadership,” she said.

Her position places commercial performance at the centre of Nigeria’s gas development ambitions, highlighting the need to measure progress by the reliability of supply, the ability of customers to pay and the willingness of investors to commit long-term capital.

Nigeria possesses substantial natural gas resources, but expanding their economic contribution requires more than increasing production. Gas must be gathered, processed, transported and distributed through commercially sustainable systems, while customers across the power, industrial, commercial and residential sectors must be able to pay for supplies under predictable contractual arrangements.

For Joe-Ezigbo, the challenge is therefore to make the entire value chain function as an integrated market rather than a collection of infrastructure projects and policy initiatives.

The Falcon CEO identified five issues that would determine the success of the domestic gas market: deliverability, creditworthy demand, market design, market access, and capital and competitiveness.

On deliverability, she argued that some of the fastest improvements could come from extracting greater value from existing infrastructure rather than relying exclusively on the construction of new assets.

She highlighted the need to strengthen gas-gathering systems, expand compression capacity, improve gas conditioning and increase access to available processing facilities.

“The challenge is increasingly less about gas availability and more about the infrastructure and commercial structures needed to move it efficiently through the value chain,” she said.

The distinction is important because gas resources have limited commercial value when producers cannot transport them reliably to paying customers. Inadequate gathering and processing infrastructure can restrict the movement of gas from production fields, while bottlenecks further along the value chain can prevent available supplies from reaching industrial users and power plants.

Making better use of existing assets, improving coordination among infrastructure operators and streamlining approvals could therefore help increase deliverability while reducing the time and capital required to expand the market.

However, Joe-Ezigbo’s emphasis on infrastructure goes beyond physical pipelines. The commercial arrangements governing access, tariffs and service delivery must also be sufficiently clear to allow operators to plan investments, recover costs and expand capacity.

A functioning market would require infrastructure owners and users to operate under predictable terms, with greater coordination across gathering, processing, transportation and distribution.

Joe-Ezigbo also placed particular emphasis on creditworthy demand, especially in the power sector, where payment challenges can undermine the commercial viability of gas supply and infrastructure investments.

She acknowledged efforts to address legacy financial obligations but warned that settling historical debts must be accompanied by mechanisms that prevent new arrears from accumulating.

“Creditworthy demand matters just as much, particularly in the power sector. We acknowledge the efforts to address legacy obligations, but settling historical debt must be accompanied by mechanisms that protect future cash flows and prevent arrears from rebuilding,” she said.

She explained that investors considering new gas developments or midstream infrastructure needed confidence that future payments would be made reliably and that contractual relationships across the value chain would remain commercially sustainable.

The gas-to-power market depends on a chain of financial obligations linking gas producers and suppliers, pipeline operators, power-generation companies and electricity buyers. Weakness at one point can affect the ability of other participants to meet their obligations, creating a cycle of delayed payments and constrained investment.

For gas suppliers, uncertainty over collections can make it difficult to finance production, maintain infrastructure or commit additional volumes. For infrastructure investors, the prospect of persistent payment arrears can weaken the case for projects requiring substantial upfront capital and long repayment periods.

Joe-Ezigbo’s argument is that resolving legacy debt is necessary but insufficient. The industry must also establish credible mechanisms for future payments, improve contractual enforcement and strengthen the financial relationships that underpin gas supply.

Without such safeguards, the transition towards a more market-oriented system could struggle to attract the capital required to expand domestic gas availability.

Last-mile infrastructure holds the key to market expansion

Beyond major pipelines and processing facilities, Joe-Ezigbo highlighted the importance of strengthening the last mile of the gas value chain through distribution networks, virtual pipelines, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) infrastructure and compressed natural gas (CNG) deployment.

She noted that trunk infrastructure remained essential but would not, on its own, ensure that gas reached industrial clusters, commercial establishments and households.

Effective distribution requires clear franchise arrangements, transparent tariff structures and workable solutions to foreign-exchange exposure, she said.

The emphasis on distribution reflects the need to connect gas resources and transportation systems with actual users. While large pipelines can move substantial volumes between production and consumption centres, many potential customers require local networks or alternative delivery systems to access gas.

Virtual pipelines can help serve customers in locations without direct pipeline connections, while LPG and CNG infrastructure can expand access to gas-based energy solutions across different market segments.

For distribution businesses, however, the commercial viability of these investments depends on the ability to establish reliable customer demand, recover infrastructure costs and manage operating expenses.

Foreign-exchange exposure presents an additional challenge where equipment, components or services are priced in foreign currency but revenues are collected in naira. Transparent tariff arrangements and financing structures suited to the domestic market could help investors manage this risk and support wider distribution networks.

The development of last-mile infrastructure would also help translate Nigeria’s gas resources into more visible economic benefits by making supplies accessible to businesses and households that cannot connect directly to existing pipeline systems.

To accelerate the development of a functioning domestic gas market ahead of the September 2028 transition, Joe-Ezigbo proposed six priorities for government and industry stakeholders.

First, she called for the publication of a transparent sector scorecard to track progress towards the market transition. Such a framework would provide a common basis for assessing implementation, identifying bottlenecks and holding relevant institutions and operators accountable for agreed targets.

Second, she advocated securing forward gas-to-power cash flows to strengthen payment certainty and improve the bankability of investments. The objective would be to protect future revenue streams and prevent the recurrence of arrears that undermine the financial sustainability of gas supply.

Third, she urged policymakers to sequence deregulation deliberately, ensuring that market reforms proceed alongside the development of the commercial and institutional arrangements needed to support them.

The transition to a willing-buyer, willing-seller framework would require market participants to operate under clearer commercial terms, but the pace and sequencing of reforms would be important to maintaining supply reliability and investor confidence.

Fourth, she called for the removal of midstream infrastructure bottlenecks through aggregation and coordinated approvals. Better alignment among project developers, infrastructure owners and regulatory institutions could reduce delays and improve the utilisation of existing facilities.

Fifth, she advocated expanding naira financing for gas-distribution infrastructure, identifying domestic-currency capital as a potential means of reducing foreign-exchange exposure and making local projects more commercially sustainable.

Access to suitable financing is particularly important for distribution investments, which may require substantial initial expenditure before customer volumes generate sufficient revenue. Financing structures aligned with domestic revenues could help reduce currency mismatches and support the expansion of infrastructure to underserved markets.

Finally, Joe-Ezigbo called for verified low-methane gas to be positioned as a national competitive advantage.

The proposal links domestic gas development with the growing importance of emissions performance and environmental accountability in global energy investment. Verification of methane performance could help strengthen the credibility of Nigerian gas supplies as investors and buyers increasingly scrutinise the environmental characteristics of energy production.

Together, the six priorities seek to address the interconnected constraints affecting the domestic gas market: limited infrastructure, uncertain revenue collection, gaps in commercial arrangements, financing challenges and the need to remain competitive in changing energy markets.

Joe-Ezigbo concluded that Nigeria’s gas ambitions would require shared accountability across government, operators, offtakers and financiers, with each participant playing a defined role in ensuring reliable supply, credible demand, predictable regulation and sustained access to capital.

The call reflects a broader challenge for the country’s domestic gas strategy: translating the potential of its resource base into commercially dependable energy supplies that support industrialisation, electricity generation and wider economic activity.

The task, for government, includes providing predictable regulation, coordinating infrastructure development and establishing market arrangements that encourage investment. Operators must deliver reliable supplies and maintain infrastructure, while offtakers need to honour payment obligations and demonstrate the financial capacity to sustain demand. Financiers, in turn, require credible contracts and predictable cash flows to support long-term commitments.

The planned September 2028 transition to a willing-buyer, willing-seller market will make these relationships increasingly important. A more commercially driven market cannot be sustained by policy declarations alone; it must be supported by the physical ability to deliver gas, customers capable of paying for it and contracts that distribute risks on workable terms.

As a major indigenous player in Nigeria’s gas industry, the priorities identified by Falcon Corporation point to the need for a coordinated approach that links production with infrastructure, financing and market demand.

Joe-Ezigbo’s central argument is that Nigeria’s next phase of gas-sector development will be determined not simply by the scale of its reserves or the strength of its policy architecture, but by the effectiveness with which the country converts those advantages into delivered gas, honoured financial obligations and sustainable investments.

Achieving that outcome by 2028 would require government and industry to move beyond isolated interventions towards a connected, commercially disciplined market in which infrastructure is efficiently used, payments are dependable and capital can be deployed with greater confidence.