Nigeria’s gas ambitions should begin at home

Nigeria declared a "Decade of Gas" in 2021, positioning natural gas as a crucial fuel for industrialization and a cornerstone of its energy strategy. With over 200 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, Nigeria holds Africa's largest gas endowment and significant untapped energy resources. However, the country's primary constraint remains its capacity to build the necessary infrastructure for large-scale gas delivery.

Against this backdrop, the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline, now formalized as the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, is an ambitious project spanning thousands of kilometers across thirteen countries. The intergovernmental agreement, signed by ECOWAS heads of state in July 2026, represents a diplomatic milestone toward regional integration and establishing a new export corridor to European markets. Yet, this international ambition contrasts sharply with Nigeria's unfinished domestic gas network.

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The ambition was, and remains, the right one. With more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, Nigeria possesses Africa’s largest gas endowment and one of the world’s most significant untapped energy resources. Yet the country’s greatest constraint is its ability to build the infrastructure needed to deliver it at scale.

The tension is most apparent in the domestic backbone projects. The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, intended to extend gas supply to northern Nigeria, and the OB3 pipeline, designed to link eastern Niger Delta supplies with the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline System, are reportedly over 90 percent complete. Despite this progress, they are years behind schedule. Until AKK and OB3 are fully operational and integrated, large parts of Nigeria will continue to lack reliable gas-fired electricity, and compressed natural gas initiatives will remain constrained.

The execution deficit is further exemplified by private capital's response to state-led infrastructure. Aliko Dangote's East-West Offshore Gas Gathering System (EWOGGS), a 1,100-kilometer offshore pipeline built to transport gas directly from the Niger Delta to his refinery and fertilizer plant, bypasses the state-led onshore transmission network. This decision signals a market verdict on the public institutions responsible for delivering strategic infrastructure at the pace required by the country's ambitions. Similar execution challenges plague earlier export projects like Brass LNG and Olokola LNG, which have stalled for over two decades.

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One of Nigeria’s largest industrial consumers of gas concluded that the public backbone was too slow, too uncertain and too exposed to disruption to anchor its supply chain. Rather than wait for the national network to mature, he is building an alternative around it.