The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Wednesday, September 16, said it is targeting up to $10 billion in gas investments through the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF).
Rabiu Umar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NMDPRA, announced this during a panel session at the 2026 Gastech Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Umar said the fund provides seed capital and equity financing to reduce investment risks and encourage private sector participation in Nigeria’s gas industry.
“We have a fund which is called the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund, and that fund is designed to de-risk projects. So we put in equity,” Umar said.
He said the $10 billion target represents the additional investment the fund seeks to unlock through its initial financing.
“The $10 billion is the target to say, can we reach a point where we unlock investment in that space of up to $10 billion? That is the kind of trajectory that we’re looking at in terms of deepening investment in gas,” he added.
Umar said the MDGIF supports projects across the gas value chain, including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), floating LNG, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
He added that government intervention may be necessary in some cases to create the conditions for major infrastructure projects to proceed.
Also speaking at the conference, Oritsemuyiwa Eyesan, CEO of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), said Nigeria is targeting a significant increase in natural gas production to supply up to 70 percent of Africa’s gas demand.
She said the country plans to leverage its estimated 215 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves to help address energy poverty across the continent.
“Nigeria is sitting today on 215 TCF of gas. Our current gas production is about 8 BCF. I’m sure if you just do an extrapolation, you can see that that is still a very minute resource coming out of oil and gas production,” Eyesan said.
She said raising production would allow Nigeria to meet growing domestic demand while positioning the country as a major gas supplier to other African countries.
“By doubling our production, tripling our production, we can be meeting at least 70 per cent of Africa’s demand,” Eyesan added.
However, she said unlocking the opportunity would require increased investment, commercially viable gas pricing and expanded infrastructure.
Eyesan said the federal government had introduced incentives to attract investment into the sector, while NUPRC continued to offer oil and gas assets through regular licensing rounds.
In November 2025, the NMDPRA said that MDGIF has facilitated investments worth over N287 billion in various gas infrastructure projects.
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