Industry leaders at the fourth Gas Investment Forum have identified inadequate infrastructure, weak bankable demand and uncertainty around domestic gas pricing as major constraints to increasing gas production in Nigeria.

Group Chief Technical Officer, NewcrossEP, Dr Abiodun Ogunjobi, said infrastructure remained a major constraint to developing new gas projects.

Ogunjobi said some existing infrastructure was already operating at capacity, while third-party facilities might not have the capacity to accommodate additional production.

“Infrastructure is the key bottleneck,” he said, adding that producers could not invest in new infrastructure where projects were not commercially viable.

He also identified cash flow and payment challenges as factors affecting project development, particularly the cost of surface facilities required to move gas to the market.

General Manager, Gas Commercial, Sahara Group, Mariah Lucciano-Gabriel, said the viability of gas projects should be assessed beyond headline gas prices and the fiscal regime.

She said investors also had to consider the total risk-adjusted cost and the time required to move gas from the reservoir to the customer.

According to her, delays associated with pipelines, community issues and securing bankable demand could weaken project economics.

Lucciano-Gabriel identified infrastructure, regulatory certainty, project economics, bankable demand and execution as key factors in determining the viability of gas projects.

She said power and fertiliser companies could serve as anchor customers because of their capacity to take large volumes, but added that demand had to be bankable.

Associate Vice President, Gas Business, Heirs Energies, Joseph Adetuberu, said Nigeria should focus on maximising existing gas resources rather than concentrating solely on new exploration.

He said more than half of current gas production was held by independent producers, which might not have the financial capacity of international oil companies for large-scale exploration.

Adetuberu said a significant portion of Nigeria’s gas reserves was associated gas, adding that higher oil production could result in additional gas production.

He, however, stressed the need to convert domestic demand into bankable demand and urged independent producers to maintain financial discipline.

Council Chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigerian Council, Francis Nwaochei, said technology could help lower the cost of developing and distributing gas.

Nwaochei said technology could reduce costs associated with distribution, metering and other processes required to deliver gas to consumers.

He cited the use of artificial intelligence in analysing reservoir and field data, saying one exercise generated 16,000 opportunities for further examination and helped identify lost or bypassed opportunities.

He said maximising existing fields would enable producers to derive more value from current resources.

Nwaochei also called for greater government-industry coordination and consistent interpretation of regulations, particularly clarity around the domestic gas pricing framework to enable investors to determine project economics.