In addition to oil reserves, Nigeria holds approximately 185 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, making the country the largest natural gasholder in Africa and the seventh largest in the world.
As desirable as that is for the Shah Deniz II players, they need to remember the cardinal rules of the gas game: The ultimate resource holder, in this case Azerbaijan, always holds the aces.
Chesapeake is believed to be the largest acreage holder (more than 1 million acres) in the Marcellus shale gas play, which stretches under much of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia.