Falcon Seeks Stronger Regulation, Coordination To Accelerate Gas Production, Investable Domestic Market

The co-founder and chief executive officer of Falcon Corporation Limited, Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, has called for stronger coordination across regulation, infrastructure, market design and financing if Nigeria is to translate its abundant gas resources into a liquid, creditworthy and investable domestic market by 2028.

Falcon Corporation Limited is one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous gas companies.

Joe-Ezigbo made the call while delivering the keynote address, “Powering Nigeria’s Domestic Gas Market: From Policy Architecture to a Functioning Market,” at the 4th Gas Investment Forum in Lagos.

The Forum brought together key stakeholders across government and the gas value chain, including representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (Gas), NMDPRA, NUPRC, NNPC Limited, the Decade of Gas Secretariat, the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), the Association of Local Distributors of Gas (ALDG), investors, and industry operators.

According to the Falcon CEO, Nigeria has reached an important inflection point, with much of the policy and regulatory architecture required to support domestic gas-market development now in place. She cited the Petroleum Industry Act, the evolving fiscal regime, NNPC’s Gas Master Plan 2026, the Domestic Base Price framework and the September 2028 transition to a willing-buyer, willing-seller market as important building blocks.

She stressed, however, that the next phase must be defined by execution, particularly the ability to move gas reliably to customers, strengthen commercial discipline and create the confidence required to attract long-term capital.

“The real measure of progress will not be the size of our reserves or the number of announcements we make. It will be gas delivered to the customer, invoices paid when due, and capital that the market has enough confidence to keep. That is how Nigeria builds a functioning domestic gas market and earns global leadership,” Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo said.

“The five issues that will determine the success of Nigeria’s domestic gas market are deliverability, creditworthy demand, market design, market access, and capital and competitiveness. For infrastructure, some of the fastest gains will come from getting more out of existing assets, through stronger gathering systems, compression, gas conditioning and greater access to available processing capacity. The challenge is increasingly less about gas availability and more about the infrastructure and commercial structures needed to move it efficiently through the value chain.”

Mrs. Joe-Ezigbo also highlighted the importance of creditworthy demand, particularly within the power sector.

“Creditworthy demand matters just as much, particularly in the power sector. We acknowledge the efforts to address legacy obligations, but settling historical debt must be accompanied by mechanisms that protect future cash flows and prevent arrears from rebuilding. For investors considering new gas developments or midstream infrastructure, confidence ultimately depends on the reliability of future payments and the strength of contractual relationships across the value chain,” she stated.

Joe-Ezigbo further emphasised the importance of strengthening the last mile of the gas value chain through distribution networks, virtual pipelines, LPG infrastructure and CNG deployment. She noted that while trunk infrastructure remains essential, distribution businesses can serve industrial clusters, commercial users, and households effectively only with clear franchise arrangements, transparent tariff structures, and workable solutions to foreign-exchange exposure.

To accelerate progress toward 2028, Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo proposed six priorities such as publishing a transparent sector scorecard for the market transition; securing forward gas-to-power cash flows; sequencing deregulation deliberately; debottlenecking midstream infrastructure through aggregation and coordinated approvals; expanding Naira financing for gas-distribution infrastructure; and positioning verified low-methane gas as a national competitive advantage.

She concluded that building a functioning domestic gas market will require shared accountability across government, operators, offtakers and financiers, with each part of the ecosystem playing a defined role in delivering reliable supply, credible demand, predictable regulation and long-term capital.

For the Falcon CEO, Nigeria’s next phase of gas-sector development will be determined not by the scale of its resources alone, but by how effectively those resources are converted into molecules delivered, obligations honoured and investments sustained