The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency on Tuesday announced that the consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in Nigeria, popularly called cooking gas, exceeded one million metric tonnes in 2020.
The PPPRA disclosed this on Tuesday in a statement by its Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu.
The agency said that the recorded growth has made 2020 the first year in the nation’s history where LPG consumption rose to the one million MT threshold.
Statistics showed that Nigeria consumed 840,594.37MT of LPG in 2019, indicating an increase of 60.5 per cent over the 635,452.061MT recorded in 2018.
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“This steady and sustained pattern of growth culminating in the over one million metric tonnes of LPG domestic consumption milestone in 2020 has placed the country first in West Africa and one of the leading LPG consuming nations on the continent,” the Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, said.
He explained that with the feat, the country was on track to meet the five million MT target by 2022, as set in the Nigeria Gas Policy of 2017.
He said this translates to an average of one million MT/year, provided the country sustains and ramps up intervention efforts and initiatives.
Saidu said the aim of the Federal Government’s resolve to deepen LPG penetration across the country was to create a healthier life for all Nigerians by providing access to a cleaner source of energy for cooking, vehicular transportation and other domestic uses.
He noted that the attainment of the one million MT domestic utilisation milestone was a testimony to the progress made so far in ensuring the provision of alternative sources of fueling to Nigerians in place of petrol, diesel and kerosene.
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The statement added that already, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited. had increased its allocation of LPG to the domestic market from 350,000MT to 450,000MT in 2021 in order to support the goal.
“Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation recently commenced LPG production and load-out in its newly inaugurated Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited Oredo Gas handling facility, which has an estimated production stream of 330MT daily,” the PPPRA added.
It said the remarkable growth in the domestic LPG market remained largely driven by the impact of the Federal Government’s policies and programmes, coupled with the efforts of relevant stakeholders and regulatory bodies in the industry.
The agency said all of the efforts had led to the entrance of new investors in the sector due to the creation of a conducive environment.
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It said the culmination of the Year of Gas with the National Gas Expansion Programme auto-gas rollout was expected to foster exponential growth within the industry as more Nigerians would embrace the utilisation of LPG/CNG as fuel for their automobiles.
By Peace Obi
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