Nigeria pushes gas into fast lane
Abuja turns to new gas promotion measures to ease the pain of removing unaffordable gasoline subsidies
“Gas is Nigeria’s new petrol,” petroleum minister Timipre Sylva said of the oil-dependent nation’s attempt to diversify and overcome the crude oil price volatility that perennially afflicts its economic growth. He said it way back in June 2017, when the Federal Executive Council had just approved the National Gas Policy. But measures announced in September mean this vision could at last become reality for the country’s nearly 200mn people. The consumption of refined products in Africa’s largest economy has declined more rapidly than in many other countries in the wake of the pandemic, and this trend appears set to continue. The total volume of refined products consumed in the country decli
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
