Federal Government of Nigeria has given details on its efforts at deepening the local production, affordability and accessibility in the country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Business Hilights at the just concluded two-day summit of Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) in Lagos, Technical Adviser to the Minister of Petroleum Resources on Gas, who doubles as the Program Manager, Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) of the Ministry, Mr Justice Derefaka, revealed that government has included upgrade of LPG production lines in the ongoing rehabilitation of Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries.
He said “With importation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) maintaining a steady rise against local production, the Federal Government has said it would rehabilitate the Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries to achieve local production of 360,000 MTPA of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) by 2023.”
“Other plans by the government include upgrading the Lagos-Apapa LPG Plant from 4,000MT to 8,000MT storage and increasing LPG allocation to the domestic market from Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) to reduce butane/propane exports.
Aside local production increase, Derefaka added that due to the fact that per capita consumption remains very low in Nigeria when compared with other African countries with lower population figures, he revealed that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) noted that 25,000 MT additional capacity is anticipated within the next 6 -12 months.
With this coming on stream, LPG penetration will grow to surpass the current five per cent usage of LPG as energy source in the country.
He said government is coming up with additional plans to among other things, deepen implementation of the provisions of the National Gas Policy of the government.
Continuing, he noted that the government also aims to diversify supply sources with 110,160MTPA from Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s Oredo facility expected to come on stream by first quarter of 2020.
“By our 2018 record, gas utilisation is being deepened by increasing LPG penetration. LPG consumption increased by about 16 per year on year.
“A total of 364 LPG plants licences and approvals were issued in 2018. This is expected to give about 15 per cent rise in the nation’s LPG consumption based on storage capacity.
“We need to deliver the much-needed energy for development and growth.
“We need to explore ways and means to scale through the Nigeria energy hurdle and put in place strategic measures to address the downside issues, challenges, gaps and aggressively pursue the upside opportunities,” the Technical Adviser to the Minister on Gas Business and Policy Implementation averred.
