Domestic Utilization of Methane and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) in Nigeria's Decade of Gas: How Much Progress Has Been Made?

The huge and constantly growing demand for energy and energy supply security as well as the drive for more affordable and cleaner energy in Nigeria in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 has led Nigerian policy makers declare the new decade as the "Nigerian Decade of Gas" signalling a drive in deepening gas production, utilisation, reduction in gas flaring and increase in gas export across the country. This study aims to evaluate the domestic utilisation of natural gas in Nigeria’s decade of gas. This evaluation was conducted using gas production, utilisation, and flaring data, which gives an insight into the level of growth or reduction of the Nigerian gas sector over time by using descriptive statistical tools, time series plots, analysis of variance and post hoc tests for evaluation. The results suggest little progress, so far, over the short decade, however, an upward trend is observed over a longer period in the last three decades. The results point to some of the current challenges facing the gas sector, such as the huge infrastructure gap, pipeline vandalism, gas pricing and tariffs, etc. The outlook, however, is positive as a review of policies and ongoing gas infrastructure projects suggests a possible long-term boost in gas production and utilisation, eventually helping Nigeria fulfil its long-term ambitions for the acclaimed decade of gas.