ABUJA — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has commended international energy partners, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and indigenous operating entities following the landmark signing of a Final Investment Decision (FID) for the $800 million redevelopment of the offshore Ima Gas Field.
The signing ceremony, held on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at the State House in Abuja, marks a critical turning point for the 50-year-old gas field, situated in shallow waters off the coast of Akwa Ibom State. Originally discovered in the 1970s, the field’s vast natural gas reserves remained largely unutilized for decades due to infrastructure bottlenecks and technical complexities.
The $800 million capital injection—funded through a joint venture arrangement involving the NNPCL, indigenous upstream firm Amni International, and international energy backers—will fund the deployment of advanced offshore gas processing platforms, subsea gathering pipelines, and tie-ins to existing domestic gas distribution pipelines.
Welcoming the investment decision, President Tinubu stated that the multi-million-dollar project aligns directly with the administration’s “Decade of Gas” policy initiative, aimed at harnessing Nigeria’s 200-trillion-cubic-feet proven natural gas reserves to drive domestic industrialization, expand power generation capacity, and increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) export revenues.
Federal energy officials noted that once fully operational, the revamped Ima Gas Field is projected to supply over 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscfd) directly into the domestic market. The gas will serve as primary feedstock for domestic fertilizer plants, regional power stations, and industrial manufacturing hubs across the South-South and South-East regions, while significantly reducing gas flaring in the Niger Delta basin.
