Two main agreements were signed between companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Chevron and Agip with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
“The agreements will ensure that over 70 percent of the total gas needs of the entire power sector are met,” NNPC said in a statement following the signing.
No details of the agreements were given.
Nigeria has set out ambitious plans to increase its gas supply to 13 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) by 2015, more than double the amount it was producing early last year.
It has said much of that increase will go toward supplying the country’s dilapidated but reforming power sector.
Africa’s most populous nation is the continent’s biggest oil and gas producer yet is blighted by persistent electricity outages, which force businesses and individuals who can afford them to rely on diesel generators.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who won elections last month, has set out multi-billion dollar privatization plans for the power sector, which is expected to need three billion cfd of gas by 2015.