Nigeria Close to Self-Sufficiency in Liquefied Petroleum Gas Production - Buhari

By Omololu Ogunmade

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja said Nigeria had inched closer to its dream of full utilisation of Nigeria's abundant gas potentials.

The president made the remarks at the commissioning of the Integrated Gas Handling Facility and LPG Processing and Dispensing Plants built and being operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an upstream subsidiary of NNPC in Oredo, Edo State.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a statement, quoted the president as saying, "The Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility and its associated NGLs depot will be delivering 240,000 metric tons of commercial grade Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Propane. It will also deliver about 205 million standard cubic feet per day of lean gas to the domestic market.

"In addition to its import substitution benefits that brings us a step closer to self-sufficiency in LPG production and also supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises in the host communities, this project will create hundreds of direct and indirect employment opportunities for our teeming youths (both skilled and unskilled)."

"Apart from being the largest onshore LPG plant in Nigeria with the potential of supplying about 20% of Nigeria's LPG demand, the Oredo Integrated with Gas Handling Facility was carefully situated at a corridor proximate to over 80 percent of Nigeria's LPG demand source.".

Adesina said the president remarked that the project was a follow-up to the commitment of his administration to make the Year 2020 Nigeria's Year of the Gas, recalling the government's earlier pledge to expand the gas sector and promote its :utilisation.

According to the president, the government had matched the pledge with action by executing tangible projects through value adding initiatives, listing gas infrastructure projects executed so far to include the OB3 and ELPS 2 as well as the flagged-off of the construction phase of the 614 km AKK pipeline project.

"At the turn of the Year 2020, this administration made solemn declarations to the Nigerian public over its plans to expand the gas sector footprints by scaling-up the development and utilisation of Nigeria's abundant natural gas resources to help spur industrialization, provide clean and efficient energy for transportation and household use while increasing our exports into the international market. It is on the backdrop of this commitment that the Year 2020 was dedicated and embodied as Nigeria's Year of Gas."

"Since then, we have followed through with actions that have translated those plans into tangible projects with monumental value additions to the Nigerian Economy. We accomplished key gas infrastructure projects like the OB3 and ELPS 2 and flagged-off the Construction Phase of the 614 km AKK Pipeline Project," Buhari added.

Buhari said completion and commissioning of the enumerated infrastructure projects in this Year 2020 was not a coincidence adding that the moves "followed the wrap-up of Year 2019 with the Final Investment Decision (FID) for NLNG Train 7... We are exiting Year 2020 with yet another milestone of commissioning the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility LPG Processing and Dispensing Plants which will also support the on-going drive towards providing alternative auto fuel under the National Gas Expansion Program initiative."

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, according to the statement, said the project underscored the commitment of NNPC to eliminating gas flares while increasing Nigeria's value realisation from gas.

It also said the minister noted that the entire LPG and propane production was "targeted at the Nigerian market, further affirming the conscious efforts of NNPC and the Nigerian government in growing its participation in the LPG value chain to boost domestic supply, lower prices and deepen LPG penetration to safeguard our environment."

According to the statement, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, recalled the president's clear directives to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC that "we must deepen domestic gas utilisation and monetisation and provide a platform where Nigerians can benefit from the enormous gas supplies that we have so that job and prosperity can be created and by implication, bring peace to the country."

This article originally appeared on This Day

Photo: This Day