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By Adewale Sanyaolu and Faheem Lawal
Energy industry leaders have called for deeper integration of energy data and increased investment in natural gas as Nigeria seeks to raise energy production, attract financing and translate its vast hydrocarbon resources into sustained economic growth.
The experts spoke recently at the Nigeria Energy Leaders Summit 2026, held in Lagos alongside a book launch and awards ceremony.
They also advocated the development of home-grown clean energy solutions, including the conversion of petrol and diesel vehicles to electric power, warning that Nigeria could not afford to leave the energy transition entirely to government or foreign technology.
Delivering the keynote address, the Chief Operating Officer of Transoceanic Floating Energy, Mr. Muaz Magaji, said Nigeria had remained a major oil and gas producer for more than seven decades without translating its energy wealth into a corresponding position among the world’s leading economies.
“We have always been known as one of the top 10 oil producing nations, but we have never been in the top 20 global economies,” he said.
Magaji added that Nigeria’s vast gas reserves offered an opportunity to change that narrative, stressing that the country must move beyond its traditional identity as an oil-producing nation and develop its gas resources as a major driver of industrialisation and economic expansion.
He disclosed that Transoceanic Floating Energy was developing a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project with a targeted capacity of three million tonnes per annum.
According to him, the project is currently at the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage, with a final investment decision (FID) expected early next year.
He identified ambition, technical capacity and financing as the three major challenges facing the project, while calling for collaboration with financiers and technical partners.
“We were told it was too ambitious, but we are Nigerians and we can do it,” Magaji said.
He added that the company was also developing a manpower capacity-building programme around the project to ensure that Nigerians acquire the technical skills required to participate in the development of the facility.
Magaji linked increased energy consumption directly to economic expansion, arguing that Nigeria must significantly increase energy production and consumption if it is to achieve its trillion-dollar economic ambition.
“Energy consumption is directly proportional to economic growth. To reach the trillion-dollar economy target, we must increase energy production and consumption,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Platform Capital, Dr. Akintoye Akindele, said Nigeria should approach the energy transition as an evolution in the way economies produce and consume energy rather than as a debate over the future of oil and gas.
He said the continued development of oil and gas should be pursued alongside investments in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydrogen.
“The conversation about the future cannot be about profit alone. It has to be about people, profit and planet,” Akindele said.
He also advocated the conversion of existing petrol and diesel vehicles to electric power, saying the practice was already gaining ground in countries such as India and Kenya.
According to him, converting a two-wheeler to electric power could cost less than $100, or about N150,000, potentially eliminating the recurring cost of petrol.
Akindele disclosed that there was currently no conversion centre in Nigeria, but said his team was working with some entrepreneurs with the expectation that such facilities could emerge within six months.
He urged Nigerians and private-sector operators to take greater responsibility for solving the country’s energy challenges instead of waiting entirely for government intervention.
“Government has its plate full. We should all do our own part,” he said.
He cited Bangladesh, where households with solar panels can sell excess electricity to neighbours, as an example of how decentralised energy solutions can complement government-led initiatives.
In his submission, the Innovation Director at Cypher Crescent, Mr. Nadia Al-Banna, identified fragmented energy data as one of the industry’s major constraints, saying Nigeria needed to integrate its data and knowledge into a single, reliable source of truth.
She said better data integration would enable operators to forecast production more accurately while helping project developers present more credible and bankable opportunities to investors.
“Investors want to see the full picture, including the risks and uncertainties. They need real-time production data, visualisation and digital twins,” Al-Banna said.
She cautioned against assuming that artificial intelligence alone could solve the industry’s problems, arguing that AI would only deliver its full value when supported by reliable and properly structured data.
“Data in many locations is still manual and fragmented. AI alone cannot do everything. You have to build the data infrastructure and have the technical expertise that knows our basins and reservoirs,” she said.
According to her, once data is digitised and supported by real-time communication infrastructure, AI could significantly accelerate production-system optimisation studies.
