The Managing Director of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Adeleye Falade, has charged the global gas industry players to priority methane reduction in their business policies in view of the damaging impact of methane on the global ecosystem, particularly the negative implications for revenue losses in the hydrocarbon resources industry and current drive towards greener environment.
Falade, who made the call at Gastech 2026 Exhibition and Conference in Bangkok during a panel titled “Capturing the Lost Opportunity: Driving Global Alignment on Methane Abatement Across Natural Gas Supply Chains”, said the experience of the Nigerian company showed that investment in reducing these losses can pay for itself while also reducing gas emissions and improving plant efficiency.
According to him, the NLNG approach starts with measuring methane losses and using the findings to guide investment in leak prevention and gas recovery, with independent verification to ensure credible reporting.
The expert maintained that the industry players needed to shift the conversation from the cost of methane reduction to the value it creates, recognising that preventing gas losses serves both commercial and environmental objectives.
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Falade clarified: “Every tonne emitted is lost product, lost revenue and lost energy; gas we could have sold. Every molecule of methane avoided is both an emissions reduction and a recovered energy resource.”
Citing the Nigerian company’s new boil-off gas compressor and start-up gas recovery project as examples of investments that justifies this approach, he pointed out that each project targeted methane reductions of approximately 10–15%, and the two projects have positive projected net present values, implying that their anticipated financial benefits will exceed their costs over the life of the projects.
The NLNG boss explained that the most compelling business case remained the simplest one, that is, the projects that cut the company’s methane also pay for themselves and that the discipline that reduces methane also improves asset reliability and plant efficiency. The returns show up in more places than the emissions ledger.
Falade stressed that credible measurement underpinned NLNG’s investment decisions, which allows the company to identify methane losses, direct resources to the right interventions and assess the results, adding that the NLNG’s experience demonstrate that gas producers in developing economies can establish globally trusted emissions-reporting systems by investing in monitoring infrastructure, building reporting capabilities and submitting their data to independent scrutiny.
He highlighted NLNG’s Gold Standard recognition under the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, adding that the company is the first in Africa to achieve Level 5 methane emissions reporting and that its measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system is independently assured by DNV in accordance with ISO 14064.
He listed the NLNG’s approach as including, site-wide optical gas imaging, a structured Leak Detection and Repair programme, and the phased deployment of continuous monitoring and real-time dashboards across its plant and vessels, describing credible measurement as a function of commitment and not a function of geography and NLNG has proved it can be done in Africa.
He explained that NLNG had not waited for perfect infrastructure before taking action but prioritized credible measurement, invested in appropriate technology and strengthened its reporting through independent verification, noting that the lesson from the approach is to raise standards across the industry rather than lower expectations for producers in emerging economies.
The industry expert disclosed that methane reduction was also being built into the design of NLNG’s Train 7 project, which will increase LNG production capacity from 22 million to 30 million tonnes per annum.
He further said that at national level, the company’s role in monetising gas that would otherwise have been flared had helped to reduce Nigeria’s gas-flaring rate from over 65% to under 20%. He described the conversion of wasted gas into a marketable product as the original commercial case for emissions abatement.
Falade canvassed the need for global players on greater consistency across jurisdictions, noting that differences in measurement methods and reporting requirements make enforcement uneven and meaningful comparisons more difficult.
He clarified: “The industry does not need weaker standards; it needs stronger, shared ones backed by real measurement.”
The panel also featured Zubin Bamji of the World Bank, Niels Dijksman of Brunei LNG and Hiroyuki Mori of JOGMEC. The session was moderated by Dr. Carole Nakhle, an energy economist with Crystol Energy as discussants.
