Energy
Decade of Gas: Ekpo Moves for Regional Gas Development, Collaboration To unlock Africa’s vast natural gas potential and address persistent energy deficits, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, has moved for stronger regional collaboration intracontinent. This is even as Nigeria keeps pushing for Integrated Gas Market, Cross-Border Projects at the Ministerial Roundtable on Regional Gas Development and Cooperation in Africa, held in Abuja. At the event which had participation from the World Bank, Ekpo stressed that Africa’s energy future hinges not on the abundance of its resources but on collective action and coordinated strategies. Addressing ministers, development partners, and stakeholders, the minister highlighted the paradox of Africa’s energy landscape, noting that while the continent holds over 600 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, more than 600 million people still lack access to electricity, with millions relying on traditional fuels for cooking. “This is not a question of resource availability, but one of coordination, infrastructure, and collective action,” he said. Ekpo described natural gas as a critical pathway to Africa’s self-reliance, capable of driving industrialisation, expanding energy access, and strengthening economic resilience. However, he emphasised that no single country can unlock this potential alone, underscoring regional cooperation as the cornerstone of sustainable development. He noted that Nigeria, with over 210 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, is advancing its “Decade of Gas” initiative to position itself as a regional hub through partnerships with other African nations. He cited key cross-border projects already demonstrating the benefits of collaboration, including the West African Gas Pipeline, Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline, Nigeria–Equatorial Guinea Gas Pipeline, and the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline. To scale up impact across the continent, Ekpo outlined four priority areas for deepened cooperation. These include the development of regional gas supply and market frameworks, with a shift from fragmented national systems to integrated markets featuring transparent pricing, aggregated demand, and efficient cross-border trade. The Minister also emphasised the need to expand gas-to-power and clean cooking initiatives to ensure that gas development translates into tangible benefits such as reliable electricity and improved living standards for citizens. On financing, the minister called for innovative, climate-aligned funding models, including blended finance structures, increased private sector participation, and stronger collaboration with international partners like the World Bank. Ekpo further stressed the importance of harmonising policy and regulatory frameworks across countries to reduce investment risks and accelerate project delivery, pointing to Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act as a useful reference model. He described natural gas as Africa’s “transition fuel,” serving as a practical bridge for expanding energy access, supporting industrial growth, and lowering emissions intensity, while ensuring a just and inclusive energy transition. The minister urged that the Abuja roundtable should move beyond discussions to deliver concrete outcomes, including clearly defined areas of cooperation, identification of priority bankable cross-border projects, and the establishment of institutional mechanisms to drive implementation. Reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment, Ekpo said the country stands ready to collaborate, invest, and provide leadership where necessary in building an integrated African gas market. He concluded that aligning vision, coordinating actions, and committing to shared progress would enable Africa to transform from a continent of stranded gas resources into one of integrated energy prosperity. “The future of Africa’s energy lies not in isolated pipelines, but in connected systems, shared markets, and collective ambition,” he said.
To unlock Africa’s vast natural gas potential and address persistent energy deficits, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, has moved for stronger regional collaboration intra-continent.
This is even as Nigeria keeps pushing for Integrated Gas Market, Cross-Border Projects at the Ministerial Roundtable on Regional Gas Development and Cooperation in Africa, held in Abuja. At the event which had participation from the World Bank, Ekpo stressed that Africa’s energy future hinges not on the abundance of its resources but on collective action and coordinated strategies.
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Addressing ministers, development partners, and stakeholders, the minister highlighted the paradox of Africa’s energy landscape, noting that while the continent holds over 600 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, more than 600 million people still lack access to electricity, with millions relying on traditional fuels for cooking.
“This is not a question of resource availability, but one of coordination, infrastructure, and collective action,” he said.
Ekpo described natural gas as a critical pathway to Africa’s self-reliance, capable of driving industrialisation, expanding energy access, and strengthening economic resilience.
However, he emphasised that no single country can unlock this potential alone, underscoring regional cooperation as the cornerstone of sustainable development.
He noted that Nigeria, with over 210 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, is advancing its “Decade of Gas” initiative to position itself as a regional hub through partnerships with other African nations.
He cited key cross-border projects already demonstrating the benefits of collaboration, including the West African Gas Pipeline, Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline, Nigeria–Equatorial Guinea Gas Pipeline, and the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline.
To scale up impact across the continent, Ekpo outlined four priority areas for deepened cooperation. These include the development of regional gas supply and market frameworks, with a shift from fragmented national systems to integrated markets featuring transparent pricing, aggregated demand, and efficient cross-border trade.
The Minister also emphasised the need to expand gas-to-power and clean cooking initiatives to ensure that gas development translates into tangible benefits such as reliable electricity and improved living standards for citizens.
On financing, the minister called for innovative, climate-aligned funding models, including blended finance structures, increased private sector participation, and stronger collaboration with international partners like the World Bank.
Ekpo further stressed the importance of harmonising policy and regulatory frameworks across countries to reduce investment risks and accelerate project delivery, pointing to Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act as a useful reference model.
He described natural gas as Africa’s “transition fuel,” serving as a practical bridge for expanding energy access, supporting industrial growth, and lowering emissions intensity, while ensuring a just and inclusive energy transition.
The minister urged that the Abuja roundtable should move beyond discussions to deliver concrete outcomes, including clearly defined areas of cooperation, identification of priority bankable cross-border projects, and the establishment of institutional mechanisms to drive implementation.
Reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment, Ekpo said the country stands ready to collaborate, invest, and provide leadership where necessary in building an integrated African gas market.
He concluded that aligning vision, coordinating actions, and committing to shared progress would enable Africa to transform from a continent of stranded gas resources into one of integrated energy prosperity.
“The future of Africa’s energy lies not in isolated pipelines, but in connected systems, shared markets, and collective ambition,” he said.
Energy
NMDPRA Issues Updates on Q3 Crude Supplies to Domestic Refineries
From January to September 2026, the domestic refineries in Nigeria received 156.52 million barrels of crude oil.
Of the volume, 125.85million barrels (80.4 percent) were sourced from in-country while 30.66 million barrels (19.6 percent) were imported.
This was contained in the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Factsheet September 2026 released on Thursday.
The Factsheet specifically revealed that in September 2026, 38.7 million litres of the Premium Motor Spirit PMS (petrol) were received per day, crashing from the 50.5million litres per day received in August by 23 percent.
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Stock sufficiency in September was 23.9 days, declining below the 30-day threshold.
The NMDPRA stressed that while 28.7million litres were supplied per day from domestic sources, declining by 21 percent from the previous month, 10.2 million litres were imported, reducing imported petrol by 30 percent in the period under review.
According to the Factsheet, “Domestic refining contributed about 65 percent of the national petrol requirement (consumption) in September 2026, and about 74 percent of receipts, supplemented by 26 percent of imports”.
The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (DPRP) is the only domestic refinery which currently produces petrol in Nigeria.
The report added that the DPRP produced 47.22 million litres per day of PMS in September, supplying 28.50 million litres per day to the domestic market and exporting (35.2 percent) 15.47 million litres per day.
On capacity utilization, the refinery recorded 105.98 percent of its 650,000 barrels per day capacity in the period under review.
The Factsheet disclosed that 8.7million litres of diesel were consumed in the month under review.
The NMDPRA revealed that modular refineries supplied 4.3 percent of domestic diesel consumption in September.
Aradel and OPAC, said the Factsheet, operated below optimal capacity due to feedstock challenges and maintenance shutdowns.
September diesel receipts, according to the NMDPRA, were the lowest of the 13 months, driven by low imports and low domestic evacuation amid high prices.
The Factsheet said, “Nigeria’s energy-sector transformation is progressing. Domestic refining contributed about 65 percent of the national petrol requirement (consumption) in September 2026, and about 74 percent of receipts, supplemented by 26 percent of imports.
“Priority gas projects have reached significant mileage, with the AKK pipeline at 84 percent completion as of September 2026,” the Factsheet pointed out.
Energy
Renaissance, Sterling Bank Back Indigenous Oil and Gas Contractors Financially
The appetite for improving access to capital for indigenous oil and gas contractors, strengthening the capacity of Nigerian businesses to execute critical energy projects and contribute to the country’s production ambitions, has seen the Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited (‘Renaissance’) go into a strategic financing partnership with Sterling Bank Limited.
The partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), brings Sterling Bank into the renewed Renaissance Vendor Financing Scheme (RVFS), a structured financing programme designed to address one of the longstanding challenges confronting indigenous service providers in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry: access to timely and affordable funding for contract execution.
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The expanded programme brings together 13 financial institutions with combined financing commitments of $4.1 billion and ₦435 billion, creating a substantial pool of capital to support eligible contractors delivering projects for Renaissance, operator of the former Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) joint venture assets.
Speaking on its participation, Dele Faseemo, Group Executive, Corporate and Investment Banking at Sterling Bank, described the partnership as an important opportunity to connect financial capacity with productive enterprise in one of Nigeria’s most strategically important sectors.
“At Sterling Bank, we believe financing should enable capable businesses to deliver, grow and compete. Our participation in the Renaissance Vendor Financing Scheme reflects that conviction. By providing structured funding to qualified contractors, we are supporting the businesses that keep the energy value chain moving, strengthening Nigerian content participation and contributing to the broader objective of increasing the country’s productive capacity,” Faseemo said.
For many indigenous contractors, securing a major contract represents only the first step towards business growth. The ability to mobilise equipment, procure materials, retain skilled personnel and meet demanding project timelines often depends on access to adequate working capital. Financing constraints can therefore limit the capacity of otherwise qualified businesses to execute contracts, scale their operations and participate more meaningfully in the energy value chain.
Through the RVFS, participating financial institutions will provide structured financing to eligible contractors against confirmed contracts awarded by Renaissance, subject to applicable credit assessment and approval processes. The arrangement is intended to ease funding pressures, improve project execution and strengthen the financial capacity of indigenous service providers.
Tony Attah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, highlighted the importance of the financing arrangement to the company’s growth ambitions.
“What we’ve been able to achieve as Renaissance is to go into that partnership with these incredible 13 banks who have come up to support this vendor scheme at over $4 billion and over ₦435 billion funds available for the vendors to be able to support us in our growth agenda,” Attah said.
He further emphasised the financial advantage the scheme offers participating contractors, noting that, “The interest rate that the banks are offering to the contractors is very competitive, and it is certainly better than the vendors going out to the respective banks on their own.”
The Renaissance Vendor Financing Scheme builds on a contractor financing programme established in 2010, which has evolved over the years to support local service providers executing projects across the oil and gas value chain. Its latest expansion comes as Renaissance pursues an ambitious growth strategy, including its aspiration to achieve production of one million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.
Delivering on this ambition will require sustained investment not only in upstream production assets but also in the network of engineering firms, equipment suppliers, logistics providers, technical specialists and other indigenous businesses whose services are essential to operational performance.
With an established presence in corporate banking and energy sector financing, Sterling Bank continues to support businesses operating across critical segments of the Nigerian economy through tailored financial solutions, strategic partnerships and sector-specific expertise.
The collaboration reinforces the Bank’s commitment to supporting indigenous enterprise development, strengthening local capacity and financing productive economic activity, while contributing to efforts to improve Nigeria’s energy security and long-term industrial competitiveness.
Energy
UNDC Assures on Readiness to Protect Oil, Gas Pipelines
The Niger Delta Youths are primed to assume national responsibilities in critical areas of the economy by protecting vital oil and gas assets in the region.
The United Niger Delta Congress (UNDC) gave the assurance at a media briefing in Abuja, over the weekend, adding that the youths of Niger Delta were ready to work with the federal government in this regard.
The group maintained that youths in the region have shown that such responsibilities, including the security of pipelines, can be entrusted to them.
Speaking at the news conference, Niger Delta Youth activist, Mallam Julius Obi, said the Niger Delta is safer while the nation’s crude is flowing based on the fact that youths in the region are doing the job.
He said that being a youth should not be a disqualification from strategic national assignments but when matched with preparation and character, a national asset.
“We are calling on the federal government to note that Nigeria is full of young men and women who are prepared, disciplined and ready to carry out national responsibilities.
“We urge the federal government to keep opening the doors of strategic national service to young Nigerians who have earned trust the only way it can be earned, by delivery,” Obi said.
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The group commended President Bola Tinubu for sustaining the security reforms in the oil and gas industry and the the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for coordinating the protection of the nation’s pipelines, and the management of NNPCL for providing the enabling environment.





