Nigeria’s Gas Output Rises 8%, Climbs by 198bn Scf Amid Elevated Flaring

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Numbers released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has revealed that Nigeria’s total gas production increased by nearly 8 per cent in 2025, a rise of roughly 198 billion Standard Cubic Feet (Scf), underscoring steady but measured growth in upstream gas supply.

A THISDAY comparison of the commission’s Gas Production Status Reports for 2024 and and 2025 showed that total gas production rose from 2.508 trillion standard cubic feet in 2024 to 2.706 trillion standard cubic feet in 2025. Specifically, the difference of 197.7 billion scf represented a 7.9 per cent increase year on year.

While the rise is material in absolute terms, the underlying data indicated that Nigeria’s gas sector is expanding at a moderate pace, with gains spread unevenly between associated and non-associated gas streams and utilisation broadly keeping pace with supply.

In 2024, the data showed that associated gas production stood at 1.441 trillion scf, accounting for about 57.4 per cent of total gas output. Non-associated gas contributed 1.068 trillion scf, or 42.6 per cent of production. By 2025, associated gas rose marginally to 1.456 trillion scf, while non-associated gas increased more strongly to 1.250 trillion scf.

This means associated gas production grew by 15.3 billion scf, a rise of just 1.1 per cent, whereas non-associated gas expanded by 182.4 billion scf, representing a much stronger 17.1 per cent increase.

As a result, non-associated gas accounted for roughly 46.2 per cent of total gas production in 2025, up from 42.6 per cent the previous year, confirming a gradual structural shift towards gas fields not directly linked to crude oil output.

Besides, the data showed that gas utilisation moved broadly in line with production, with total gas utilised increasing from 2.313 trillion scf in 2024 to 2.500 trillion scf in 2025. The increase of 186.9 billion scf represents an 8.1 per cent rise, slightly outpacing the growth in total production. In proportional terms, utilisation efficiency improved marginally.

In 2024, utilised gas represented about 92.2 per cent of total production. By 2025, this ratio edged up to 92.4 per cent, suggesting that additional volumes brought on stream were largely absorbed by domestic consumption, exports and other uses rather than being lost to inefficiencies.

However, despite this improvement, gas flaring also increased in absolute terms, as total gas flared rose from 192.9 billion scf in 2024 to 204.0 billion scf in 2025, an increase of 11.1 billion scf or 5.8 per cent.  But as a share of total production, flaring declined slightly from about 7.7 per cent to 7.5 per cent, indicating that flaring control improved marginally but did not decline in volume because overall production rose.

Furthermore, gas shrinkage remained negligible in both periods, falling from 2.464 billion scf in 2024 to 2.121 billion scf in 2025, a reduction of roughly 14 per cent. In actual terms, this reinforced the view that processing and transportation losses remain a very small fraction of Nigeria’s gas balance.

Taken together, the figures painted a picture of steady rather than dramatic expansion. Nearly 90 per cent of the increase in total gas production between 2024 and 2025 came from non-associated gas, confirming that Nigeria’s incremental growth is being driven primarily by dedicated gas developments rather than oil-linked output.

At the same time, the modest improvement in utilisation ratios suggested that infrastructure and market absorption are expanding broadly in step with supply. However, the fact that flaring volumes still rose by almost 6 per cent in absolute terms highlighted the continuing challenge of fully monetising incremental gas, even as efficiency improves on paper.

In practical terms, the additional 197.7 billion scf produced in 2025 was largely matched by an extra 186.9 billion scf of utilised gas, leaving only a narrow gap that translated into higher flaring volumes.

Overall, the NUPRC data showed that Nigeria’s gas sector is on a path of gradual expansion, but not a step-change, given various initiatives by the federal government to expand production, including the ‘Decade of Gas’ initiative.

In November last year, the federal government reiterated that Nigeria’s ‘Decade of Gas’ programme spanning 2021-2030 had so far unlocked about 215 strategic upstream and midstream gas projects worth over $8 billion investments in 18 months, with additional $20 billion expected in the coming years.

Also, the  government stated that it had increased its gas production target to 12 billion cubic feet of gas production by 2030. However, the impact of these initiatives is yet to be fully realised by the industry.