+Non-Oil: Industrialists Look Inwards
Oil and Gas: NNPC Looks Outwards
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited announced the beginning of the export of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) into the Asian market – Japan and China.
Globally, China and Japan are the highest importers of LNG with an average of over 75 million tonnes per year.
This strategic move by the NNPC will increase Nigeria’s exports. Also, it will increase its share in the global energy market, and encourage the development and investment in gas production.
In the last 3 years, the volume of natural gas exports has been on a steady decline, a 37% dip between 2021 and 2023.
This decline in exports might have resulted from the decline in the production of natural gas, especially within the last three years.
Gas production declined the most in 2009, but recovered quickly in 2010. However, in the past 4 years, the decline has been steady, the longest streak of declines in production in the last 13 years.
Within the last 4 years, natural gas production declined by 22% between 2015 and 2023.
Despite this decline in volume of exports and production, Nigeria remains the country with the 9th largest Natural Gas reserve in the world.
According to a PWC report, Nigeria’s gas reserve is 900 times more than its oil reserve, yet it is the most underutilised of both resources.
In the latest NBS foreign trade report, natural gas remains the second largest export of Nigeria. It is 8.75% of the total share of exports with a value of N1,677 billion in Q1 2024.
The decline in production has not deterred the increase in domestic consumption of gas. Domestic consumption rose to its highest in 2023 to a volume of 666 million mscf compared to 232 million mscf in 2008.
NNPC Ltd in collaboration with NNPC Shipping Ltd shipped the natural gas cargoes to Japan and China on a Delivery Ex-ship (DES) basis.