Umaru Yar’Adua, Nigerian president, wants to raise $20bn from energy companies to invest in harnessing gas reserves to solve the country’s chronic power crisis.

Nigeria is an increasingly important supplier of liquefied natural gas – gas cooled into liquid for easier shipping – to growing markets in the US, Asia and Europe. But a new policy, seen by the Financial Times, calls for “unequivocal” action to “prioritise domestic gas supplies over export”.