The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has received commendation over its plan to increase its allocation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to the domestic market from 350, 000MT to 450, 000MT by 2021.
The National President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) commended the company in a statement issued by its President, Mr Nosakhare Ogieva-Okunbor on Wednesday in Lagos.
The Managing Director of NLNG, Mr Tony Attah, had announced recently that the increment was aimed at supporting the Federal Government’s plan to deepen LPG (cooking gas) penetration in Nigeria.
Ogieva-Okunbor said with the involvement of NLNG in LPG industry in Nigeria, consumption of about 50,000MT in 2007 grew to about 900,000MT in 2019.
” As of today, with the massive investment inflow, strong advocacy and awareness campaigns on the part of NALPGAM, federal government agencies, industry stakeholders as well as government’s incentives, the consumption and usage has grown exponentially.
“By the end of year 2020, it is estimated that domestic demand for LPG would have exceeded one million metric tonnes, ” he said.
Ogieva-Okunbor, however, noted that multinational and other indigenous companies involved in gas production should be mandated to sell to the domestic market, which fortunately has the capacity to take up available production.
According to him, this will improve LPG availability which will ultimately lead to price stability.
Ogieva-Okunbor said Nigeria produces about four million Metric Tonnes of LPG per annum, which was largely for exports.
He said : “Currently, the NLNG supplies about 40 per cent of LPG in the domestic market while the remaining 60 per cent is sourced by individual investors via imports.
“With the emergence of many private storage terminals in the country, sourcing of products have been wholly and solely depend on imported LPG.
“The implication of this is that much pressure is put on the country’s foreign exchange to import a product that is abundantly available in the country.
“We therefore want to specially appeal to NLNG to further consider increasing the domestic supply of LPG to the level that will reverse the current trend of Nigeria market depending substantially on imported LPG product.”
