Nigeria among top 10 countries with the largest gas reserves

According to data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Nigeria has a natural gas reserve of 5.85 trillion cubic meters thus making it the country with the largest proven natural gas reserve in Africa.

Future plans of transitioning fully from the use of fossil fuel to low-carbon energy sources have been linked to the full utilization of Natural gas.

According to an OPEC document, world-proven natural gas reserves fell by 0.4% to approximately 206.7 trillion standard cubic metres (cu m) at the end of 2020. Proven natural gas reserves in OPEC member countries dropped 1.4% from the level at the end of 2019 to 73.74 trillion standard cu m at the end of 2020.

The ranking was done among 10 countries with most being OPEC nations.

The first country on the list with the highest natural gas reserves is Russia. According to data from British multinational, BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, 2020 edition, Russia has natural gas reserves of as much as 38 trillion cubic meters.

Second on the list is Iran with a natural gas reserve of 32 trillion cubic meters. Iran is a big player in the gas industry as it produces 16% of the global total. Qatar and Turkmenistan come in third and fourth positions with gas reserves of 24.7 trillion cubic meters and 19.5 trillion cubic meters respectively.

In the fifth position is the United States with gas reserves of 13.18 trillion cubic meters. It is important to note that the largest producers of gas are not necessarily the countries with the largest reserves.

Despite the U.S. being the world’s top gas producer and LNG exporter, it only ranks fifth in terms of reserves.

The rest of the countries which make up the ranking from sixth to tenth position comprise mainly OPEC countries and include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Nigeria, and Venezuela with China being last on the list.