Gastech 2026: Nigeria’s gas future in the new equation of energy security, capital and prosperity

By Kunle Odusola-Stevenson With an audience expected to exceed 50,000 and more than 800 exhibiting companies from across the global energy value chain, Gastech 2026 has made Bangkok a meeting point for the forces reshaping the energy economy: supply security, investment, infrastructure, technology and rapidly changing demand. For Nigeria, however, the significance extends beyond participation. The conference has sharpened a fundamental question: how can the country translate its considerable gas endowment into industrial growth, competitive energy and investable opportunities?

Nigeria arrived in Bangkok with an increasingly clear proposition. Its gas resources can support global LNG markets, but their greater strategic value may lie in what they can enable at home—reliable electricity, fertiliser, petrochemicals, manufacturing and a deeper regional energy market. That proposition was captured succinctly by Ekperikpe Ekpo, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), during the opening ministerial dialogue: “Resource alone, without the provision of infrastructure, technology and financing, cannot take us anywhere.” The statement goes beyond policy.

It identifies the central commercial challenge facing Nigeria’s gas economy: converting resource potential into projects capable of attracting long-term capital. That means creating the conditions for pipelines, processing facilities, storage, gas-to-power, CNG, small-scale LNG and gas-based industries to operate as viable businesses rather than remain perpetual infrastructure aspirations. It is also where the wider African conversation becomes relevant.

NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber and convener of African Energy Week, argued in Bangkok for an African energy strategy centred on adding energy capacity rather than narrowing available options. His intervention highlighted the persistent gap between Africa’s resource wealth and its energy needs, stressing the importance of investment, infrastructure and market development in translating resources into economic value. For Nigeria, that gap represents both a challenge and a sizeable commercial frontier.

The investment opportunity is no longer confined to upstream production. Midstream infrastructure, gas distribution, power generation and energy-intensive industries can create multiple revenue streams from the same underlying r…