NLNG’s Renewed Push to Deepen Penetration of Global Market

With the Train 7 of the Nigeria LNG Limited nearing completion, a recent call by the Managing Director of the company, Dr. Philip Mshelbila, at the World LNG Summit and Awards held in Istanbul, Turkey, for the removal of bottlenecks in the Liquefied Natural Gas market, if implemented, will incentivise shareholders to fast-track future investment decisions and bridge the gap between Nigeria and Qatar’s shares of the global market, Ejiofor Alike writes

Nigeria’s drive to sustain or increase its share of the global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market was hindered by the lack of sustained investments since December 2007 when Train 6 of the Nigeria LNG Limited became operational.

NLNG was incorporated in 1989, five years after QatarEnergy LNG was established in 1984.

The shareholders of Nigeria LNG signed the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Trains 1 and 2 in 1995, Trains 4 and 5 in 2002, and Train 6 in 2004.

However, between 2007 when the Train 6 became operational and December 2019 when the FID for Train 7 was signed, a period of 12 years, no new train was added to the NLNG.

This lack of sustained investments created lost opportunities, which reduced Nigeria’s share of the global LNG market from 10 per cent to seven per cent.

The six trains can produce a total of 22 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

In contrast, Qatar, which started shortly before Nigeria, is currently producing 77 million MTPA with a target to double the capacity to 142 million MTPA by 2030 after the completion of ongoing LNG projects.

With the Train 7 of the NLNG, which will add eight million MTPA capacity, nearing completion, Nigeria targets to increase output to 30 million MTPA.

However, this production target is still less than 50 per cent of Qatar’s current output and will represent only about 25 per cent of Qatar’s annual production by 2030 unless the Nigerian government creates an enabling environment for the shareholders to sign more FIDs.

Despite Nigeria’s abundant gas resources estimated at 210 trillion cubic feet (proven reserves), the country is still far behind the United States, Australia, Qatar, Russia, Malaysia, and Algeria in LNG export capacity due to lack of sustained investments.

The Nigerian government had initiated the Brass LNG in Bayelsa State and the Olokola LNG at the border town between Ondo and Ogun states.

However, while the Olokola project did not progress beyond the ground-breaking stage, the Brass LNG’s shareholders were not incentivised to actualise the project after spending an estimated $1 billion on early works.

At the just-ended 2025 World LNG Summit and Awards held in Istanbul, Turkey, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria LNG Limited, Dr Philip Mshelbila, had urged the global industry leaders to remove the bottlenecks in the LNG market for the product to remain competitive.

While Mshelbila has demanded the removal of global bottlenecks, the Nigerian government should focus on creating an environment that allows investment to grow and brings returns to stakeholders so that the NLNG shareholders are incentivised to sign more FIDs.

Delivering a paper during the 2025 World LNG Summit and Awards, the Independent Consultant of Flower LNG, Andy Flower, stated that growth in the global LNG supply was slow in 2024, increasing by just 3.88 MT or 0.96 per cent.

According to him, two liquefaction plants started production – ENI’s 0.6 MTPA Congo LNG project in March and New Fortress Energy’s 1.4 MTPA facility offshore Altamira, Mexico at the end of September.

He disclosed that the first 6.6 MTPA train of Russia’s Arctic 2 project started production at the beginning of the year and filled its storage.

Flower, however, noted that because of the sanctions by the United States, the operator, Novatek, was unable to secure ice-breaking LNG carriers needed during much of the year when the Arctic is frozen.

“Eight cargoes were reported to have been loaded on Russia’s “dark fleet” of conventional tankers during the summer months, but Novatek was unable to find buyers.

“Three of the cargoes were trans-shipped into the Saam FSU moored offshore Murmansk and one cargo into Koryak FSU moored off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

“The other four cargoes remained on the ships. Operations at Arctic 2 were suspended,” Flower explained.

Flower noted that growth accelerated in the first 10 months of 2025, with an increase of 22.32 MT (6.7 per cent)

“The USA has been the main source of supply growth, increasing exports by 21.26 MT (30.8per cent),” he said.

“Venture Global’s Plaquemines project in Louisiana exported 187 cargoes (12.8 MTPA), as production from the 13.3 MTPA first phase built up to full capacity and the 6.6 MTPA second phase was commissioned. Venture Global says the plant is operating at a rate of 24 MTPA.

“BP and Kosmos started production at the 2.5 MTPA Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project offshore Mauritania and Senegal in April. By mid-November 15 cargoes (1.15 MT) had been loaded.

“In August 2025, Cheniere announced commercial completion of the second 1.5 MTPA train at the Stage 3 expansion of its Corpus Christi plant in Texas with Train 3 commercial completion announced at the end of Q3,” he explained.

The independent consultant also disclosed that LNG Canada loaded the first cargo from the 7 MTPA train 1 in July, adding that by mid-November, 21 cargoes had been loaded (1.53 MT).

“Novatek started production at train 2 of its Arctic 2 project but the problems in finding buyers continue. “However, it delivered 0.8 MT from Arctic 2 to China between September and November 2025,” he added.

Speaking at a special panel session titled: “Energy Expansion in a Challenging Trade Environment,” the CEO of NLNG demanded a global alliance to address the bottlenecks in the global market.

“In order to safeguard global energy security from the risks of geopolitics and unilateral (national and regional) policies and sanctions, LNG contracts must evolve from merely defining volume and price to actively managing sovereign risk, through diversification of supply sources, delivery routes and contract terms,” he said.

He stated that global energy expansion will stall unless supply, pricing, decarbonisation and other structural bottlenecks in LNG supply are urgently addressed.

“LNG has long been viewed as a transition fuel, but its potential goes far beyond that. With greater supply, stronger affordability, and deep decarbonization across the entire system, arguments for LNG as a true destination fuel become increasingly credible,” he said.

On the issue of affordability, Mshelbila warned that “If we do not make LNG more affordable and more decarbonized, its reach will remain limited. But with technological improvements and continued investment, we can unlock its full potential for decades to come.

“Even if incremental upstream cost is reduced, it will be impactful,” he added.

Mshelbila also spoke extensively on the issue of decarbonisation, recalling that Europe started the implementation of the policy of decarbonisation.

While describing decarbonisation as a welcome development, he insisted that policies that work globally should be adopted.

“Nobody is contesting decarbonisation but the question is how and the timeline. There should be a collaboration.

“We need more global policies to be put in place,” he added.

Mshelbila also noted that the LNG market had moved from a period dominated by short-term contracting to heightened interest in long-term commitments after the 2022 supply shock.

According to him, both contract types are now in strong demand, driven by elevated global risk and uncertainty.

Also addressing the global LNG leaders, the Deputy Managing Director of the NLNG, Mr. Olakunle Osobu stated that with the Train 7 nearing completion, the company is well positioned to compete with the United States and Qatar, assuring that “we will keep the gas flowing as long as you keep the dollar rolling.”

Mshelbila had earlier urged the Nigerian government to address the fundamentals of gas production and supply to achieve global competitiveness in the LNG market.

Speaking at a strategic panel session on “Accelerating Gas Development for Domestic & Global Energy Needs” at the 2025 NOG Energy Week held in Abuja, Mshelbila listed the longstanding bottlenecks in Nigeria’s gas sector.

He acknowledged that recent reforms have led to significant progress and renewed investment momentum.

He said: “We need to have sufficient volume of gas. We should be able to produce and then transport them to where they are needed.”

He described the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021 as being instrumental in resolving key obstacles.

“The PIA has dealt with many of these bottlenecks”, he said, adding that a lot of governance and regulatory issues are also being addressed.

According to him, a better fiscal environment and targeted government policies have begun to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into the gas sector.

He noted that the fiscal environment has enabled investment and that the Presidential Directive for Gas has led to an influx of foreign direct investment into the gas space.

Drawing comparisons between Nigeria and Qatar, Mshelbila stated that the two countries started nearly around the same period.

“We are now patting ourselves on the back for getting to 30 million MTPA, while Qatar is aiming at over 140 million MTPA. That is what is possible, and that is what we can do as well.”

“We have to start changing the narrative. Talk as much as you want, but if the results are not there, if performance is not there, and if people cannot invest their monies and get returns, then we are just wasting time talking,” he said.