Nigeria unlocks $800m Ima gas project after 53 years, targets LNG

Nigeria has unlocked a long-dormant gas resource with a $800 million Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Ima Gas Project, opening a new source of feedgas for Nigeria LNG Limited, foreign exchange earnings and industrial activity more than five decades after the field was discovered.

The project, being developed by Nigerian independent producer AMNI International and TotalEnergies, is located on Oil Mining Leases 112 and 117 offshore Rivers State and was discovered in 1973. Production is expected to begin in 2028. TotalEnergies said the field would reach a plateau of about 350 million cubic feet of gas per day, equivalent to more than 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.

The development is economically significant because the gas will be transported through a 22-kilometre pipeline to Nigeria LNG, where it is expected to supply about one-third of the feedgas required for the Train 7 expansion.

Train 7 is designed to increase Nigeria LNG’s liquefaction capacity from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 million tonnes, potentially strengthening Nigeria’s LNG exports and the flow of foreign exchange into the economy.

The Presidency said the Ima project marks the fourth major gas project to reach FID since President Bola Tinubu assumed office, following the Iseni, Ubeta and HI projects. It said the investments reflect efforts to turn Nigeria’s large but underdeveloped gas reserves into productive assets capable of generating jobs, revenues and industrial opportunities.

The project also carries a strong local-content dimension. The Presidency said Nigerian financial institutions arranged 77 per cent of the project’s financing, while about 60 per cent of the workforce is expected to come from host communities, including Bonny, Finima and Andoni in Rivers State.

That means a significant part of the investment could circulate within the domestic economy through local contractors, banks, suppliers, workers and service providers rather than leaving the country as foreign project expenditure.

The FID also represents progress in efforts to unlock Nigeria’s undeveloped gas resources. AMNI’s own records show that the Ima gas reserves lie above the existing Ima oil field and include more than 1.6 trillion cubic feet of P1 lean-gas reserves. The company and TotalEnergies have held interests in the licences for years while development options were assessed.

The commercial importance of the project extends beyond LNG. Increased gas availability can support power generation, fertiliser and petrochemical production while providing feedstock for industries seeking alternatives to more expensive fuels.

For Nigeria, that makes the Ima FID more than another upstream investment announcement. It is a test of whether long-delayed gas resources can finally be converted into reliable production, export earnings, industrial feedstock and jobs.

After 53 years underground, the commercial value of Ima will ultimately be measured not by the size of the resource, but by how quickly the investment turns that gas into production and how much of the resulting economic value remains in Nigeria.