sNigeria will need about 2.6million tones of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) production to meet its 2025 the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP).
Speaking on this development in his address to the 4th Edition of the Nigerian Oil & Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF), with the theme; “Oil & Gas Industry – Catalyst and Fuel for the Industrialisation of Nigeria”, on Thursday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board(NCDMB), Simbi Wabote said, the annual consumption of LPG increased from 360,000tonnes in 2015 to 1.4million tonnes in 2022.
He, however, added that, while this growth is commendable, it is instructive to note that about half of the local LPG requirement is imported.
He further said, despite that current local production level is still far below local market demand, NGEP has set a 4 million tonnes projection for the year 2025.
“These gaps in volumes and consumption spread present opportunities in local processing, storage depots, trucking, cylinders manufacturing, distribution pipelines, conversion kits, and many other opportunities, said Wabote.
The federal government, he pointed out, is expected to make adequate fiscal policy that will motivate stakeholders to take more investment decisions to increase production so as to meet consumption projection it has set in the LPG space.
He said, currently, there are seeming opportunities driven by policies, guidelines, regulations, and statutes that are now attractive to investors as there is clarity on the framework governing their business endeavours.
According to the ES, there are several policies that have been formulated and implemented by the government in their quest to stimulate economic growth and development.
He recalled that, in 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari, declared the Decade of Gas which, among others, seek to stimulate the development and utilisation of gas resources for increased domestic utilization and export towards generating more revenue for the nation.
He also noted that other policies such as the automotive gas policy advocates for the use of Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) as an alternative fuel for vehicles which has also created a vista of opportunities in the supply and installation of conversion kits in vehicles to enable it use of CNG.
In addition, he said, several industries have also installed kits to enable their power generating plants to utilise CNG and in some cases LNG instead of diesel to manage cost.
Speaking further, the ES said, the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) is another policy that is aimed at promoting the development and utilization of gas.
“It also focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with global efforts which are aimed at addressing climate change. The key thing to note here is that every policy, regulation, or statute holds an array of opportunities that can be harnessed and utilized to achieve significant benefits.” he explained.
