Once production starts, operators must maintain dependable output although controlling energy consumption, equipment operation, maintenance requirements, and operating costs.
Odusote’s argument extends beyond the genuine-world infrastructure required to produce and transport gas.
A lot of facilities encounter fragmented operating information, modest visibility across production processes, inefficient energy use and reactive maintenance, she wrote. Its exports rose by regarding 1 million tonnes during the year to 14.78 million tonnes.
That places Nigeria and other West African producers in a advertise where novel projects are competing for investment and lengthy-term customers alongside developments in the US, Qatar, Australia, East Africa and elsewhere.
“Gas projects are assets intensive by nature,” Odusote said. “Once projects concur to final investment approval, operators encounter immediate pressure to start production and commercialise output promptly.”
The ability to achieve primary gas on schedule consequently becomes critical not just for project economics but furthermore for the region’s competitiveness in attracting later investment.
But reaching initial gas is merely the beginning. Nigerian financial institutions are providing additional than 70 per cent of the financing.
The project is moreover expected to include permanent methane monitoring and no standard flaring, according to TotalEnergies.
Senegal and Mauritania began exporting LNG in 2025 across the Increased Tortue Ahmeyim project, adding modern producers to an African LNG advertise that furthermore includes Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Angola.
Ghana, meanwhile, continues to focus on the apply of domestic gas for power generation and industrial development.
She stated that the developments supply West Africa a growing role in universal gas markets but too increase questions concerning whether the region can consistently provide projects on time and status production once facilities are functioning.
“The upcoming generation of prosperous gas projects will be distinguished not simply by the size of their reserves but moreover by how speedily they accomplish opening gas, how consistently they operate, and how effectively they leverage united infrastructure and internet-based technologies to sustain production over decades,” Odusote said.
TotalEnergies said the project represents an investment of greater than $650m, whereas Nigerian government figures put the general project investment at concerning $1.108bn.
The development is expected to deliver gas to Nigeria LNG’s Train 7, providing added feedstock as the country seeks to develop gas production and strengthen its opinion in the universal LNG advertise.
The investment decision illustrates the transition from identifying gas resources to executing projects able of delivering commercial production.
Odusote, noted that transition is becoming the principal query for West Africa’s gas sector.
“Possessing copious gas reserves alone is no longer plenty,” Odusote noted , stressing that operators encounter increasing pressure to commercialise projects speedily and generate returns on significant assets investments.
She identified three measures that will increasingly determine whether gas developments succeed: the speed at which they extend to opening gas, effective safety and reliability, and sustained production efficiency over the life of the holding.
World LNG commerce reached a log 437 million tonnes in 2025, an improve of 6.3 per cent from the prior year, according to the Cross-border Gas Union’s 2026 World LNG Document.
The United States and Qatar were in the midst of the largest sources of supplementary grant, although Mauritania and Senegal joined the ranks of LNG exporters.
Nigeria accounted for 3.4 per cent of international LNG exports in 2025, ranking seventh amid exporters, according to the declare. Such weaknesses can endure concealed up to the time that they initiate affecting production, reliability or profitability.
Bigger entry to actual-time practical figures can authorize operators to watch equipment health, energy consumption, production efficiency and analyze operation across a facility.
“When operators can watch equipment health, energy consumption, production efficiency and process execution from a joined operating outlook, they are preferable positioned to determine bottlenecks initial, optimise output and minimise unplanned downtime,” she wrote.
The route reflects a broader push in the energy address to combine authentic-world infrastructure including automation and internet-based systems.
Electrification, handle automation, safety systems and electronic technologies have traditionally been designed and delivered as divided workstreams, a lot of times involving varied vendors.
The executive argued that during the time that those systems can function independently, fragmented delivery can increase project complexity and produce integration challenges that persist following construction.
“An joined method could offer engineering, procurement and construction companies and holding owners bigger alignment during project delivery whilst leaving operators including systems that are easier to sustain, optimise and broaden.
“That problem is exactly appropriate to projects such as Ima, which are moving from investment decisions into engineering, procurement and construction,” the professional said.
She quoted TotalEnergies, saying all four significant construction packages for the Ima development are expected to be executed by Nigerian contractors, whilst a consortium of seven banks is financing the project.
Infrastructure deficit is slowing push to examine modern gas frontiers in the West Africa sub region.
Now, West Africa’s push to expand natural-gas production is entering a phase where the ability to assemble infrastructure and provide projects on schedule may be as crucial as the region’s reserves, according to Area Segment Manual for Energies and Chemicals at Schneider Electric West Africa, Iretomiwa Odusote.
The concerns is coming as Nigeria advances a recent wave of gas investment, including the Final Investment Decision by TotalEnergies EP Nigeria and AMNI World Petroleum Development Business on the Ima Gas Development Project.
The Ima project, located offshore around Bonny Island and spanning OMLs 112 and 117, is expected to produce around 350 million benchmark cubic feet of gas a day, including earliest gas targeted for tardy 2028.
Source: Infrastructure Deficit Slows Push For Natural Gas Expansion In West Africa Amid New Deals
