Total gas output for the year ended December 2025 increased by almost 8 per cent, or 198 billion standard cubic feet (scf), reaching 2.706 trillion standard cubic feet, up from 2.508 trillion standard cubic feet recorded in 2024.
The figures were disclosed in the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) Gas Production Status Reports for 2025.
The data point to steady but controlled growth in upstream gas supply, even as gas flaring rose from 192.9 billion scf in 2024 to 204.0 billion scf in 2025 — an increase of 11.1 billion scf or 5.8 per cent.
A comparison of the commission’s Gas Production Status Reports for 2024 and 2025 showed that associated gas production in 2024 stood at 1.441 trillion scf, accounting for about 57.4 per cent of total output. Non-associated gas contributed 1.068 trillion scf, or 42.6 per cent.
By 2025, associated gas production edged up slightly to 1.456 trillion scf, while non-associated gas recorded a stronger rise to 1.250 trillion scf.
This indicates that associated gas output grew by 15.3 billion scf, representing a modest 1.1 per cent increase, whereas non-associated gas expanded by 182.4 billion scf, a significant 17.1 per cent rise.
Consequently, non-associated gas made up about 46.2 per cent of total gas production in 2025, compared with 42.6 per cent in 2024, signalling a gradual structural shift toward gas fields not directly tied to crude oil production.
The reports also showed that gas utilisation broadly tracked production levels. Total gas utilised rose from 2.313 trillion scf in 2024 to 2.500 trillion scf in 2025, an increase of 186.9 billion scf or 8.1 per cent.
In 2024, utilised gas accounted for roughly 92.2 per cent of total production. By 2025, this ratio increased slightly to 92.4 per cent, with most of the gas absorbed by domestic use, exports and other applications rather than lost to inefficiencies.
Despite these gains, gas flaring increased in absolute terms, rising from 192.9 billion scf in 2024 to 204.0 billion scf in 2025 — an 11.1 billion scf or 5.8 per cent increase.
Gas shrinkage, however, declined from 2.464 billion scf in 2024 to 2.121 billion scf in 2025, a drop of about 14 per cent, reinforcing the view that processing and transportation losses remain minimal within Nigeria’s overall gas balance.
According to the NUPRC, nearly 90 per cent of the growth in total gas production between 2024 and 2025 came from non-associated gas. Nonetheless, the rise in flaring volumes by almost 6 per cent underscores the ongoing challenge of fully monetising additional gas supply, despite improvements in operational efficiency.
The extra 197.7 billion scf produced in 2025 was largely offset by an additional 186.9 billion scf of utilised gas, leaving a small gap that resulted in higher flaring volumes.
Earlier, the federal government announced that it had raised its gas production target to 12 billion cubic feet per day by 2030.
In November last year, the government reaffirmed that Nigeria’s ‘Decade of Gas’ programme covering 2021 to 2030 had already unlocked about 215 strategic upstream and midstream gas projects valued at over $8 billion within 18 months, with a further $20 billion in investments expected in the coming years.