Africa is the second most populated continent but it’s also, unfortunately, the most energy-deficient continent (with 12% of global energy access deficit). It has recently been reported that over 640 million Africans need access to modern energy with per capita consumption of energy in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) being approx. 99% less than in the United States and approx. 97% less than in Europe.

Nigeria, with a current population of over 230 million people has over 90 percent of its citizens without access to electricity, making it the country with the highest level of absolute energy poverty in the world as well as the country experiencing net billion-dollar losses including loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. This is in spite of the fact that Nigeria is a natural gas province ranking 9th in proven natural gas reserves globally.

Concerned and worried by the slow trend of development in the natural gas and LNG sectors in Nigeria and Africa, the organizers of the annual Emogas’ International Natural Gas-Based Industry Conference and Exhibition (EINGICE) led by the Gas & Energy Development Council of Emogas Limited decided to convoke EINGICE with the following objectives among others:

• To bring together all major stakeholders in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, Africa and around the world to discuss and brainstorm on the prospects and problems facing the natural gas industry with a particular focus on Africa.

• To educate on and highlight the most important economic, financing and investment opportunities and potentials inherent in the natural gas industry, most especially, as it affects Nigeria in particular, and Africa, in general, with a key objective to advocate for the strategic removal of the key gas development hurdles daily faced by African economies one of which is a severe lack of access to finance for natural gas and natural gas-related investment and development projects, especially in the exploration, production, and utilization phases.

• To engage in strong local and global advocacy that will lead to Africa achieving accelerated increase in approvals for natural gas investment and development projects – projects that would scale rapidly to meet Nigeria and Africa’s geographical and socio-economic potential, and with little or no reliance on entities external to Africa.

• To develop strategies, proffer novel solutions as well as implement actionable steps and initiatives for the rapid growth and development of the natural gas industry in Nigeria and Africa.

• To promote the concept of gradual, strategic decarbonization (the so-called ‘just transition’) rather than solely opting for the very immediate and ‘painful’ ‘energy transition’ that hurts vulnerable countries in Africa including Nigeria, which currently suffers low levels of energy access and limited ability to mobilize private capital.

• To examine and optimize the current state of implementation and realization of Nigeria’s ambitious decade-long gas plan, Nigeria’s gas master plans, LNG market trends, pricing mechanisms, supply-demand dynamics, and strong local and international collaboration of all stakeholders. For each edition of this annual energy event, we ensure conference themes and subthemes that are topical in the area of energy, particularly, natural gas and its various technology options for monetization, including LNG, CNG, LPG, refining and petrochemicals, green gases, renewable energy, and other related, emerging green technologies.