The Group Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Downstream, Mr. Henry Obih, has called on operators in the oil and gas industry to invest more in Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, saying that huge opportunities still exist for investment in the sector.
Obih stated this at the opening of 14 LPG outlets by 11 Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc), saying that the low level of investment has worsened the availability of the product in the domestic market while stunting the level of consumption by Nigerians.
He said that an industry approach needs to be adopted to increase LPG penetration in the nation's domestic market.
Obih stated: "The country's current LPG consumption of about 600,000 Metric Tonnes, MT, annually is not yet satisfactory. There are huge potential for the market because the World Bank statistics estimates that Nigeria's consumption is about 3.2 million tons a year.
"In 2007, we were consuming about 50,000 MT of LPG in a year, in 2009 it was 70,000 MT, while in 2017, we were almost 600,000 MT of LPG consumables in Nigeria.
"In spite of being the largest producer of the commodity in the region, its per capita is 2.3 kilograms a year as compared to Morocco and Ghana whose annual per capita stands at 6.27 and 9.45 kilograms respectively."
On his part, Managing Director, 11Plc, Mr. Tunji Oyebanji, stated: "Our sister company NIPCO is very strong in LPG business with extensive assets and infrastructure within the various value chain, and various other investments at the retailing end of the business. We are further guaranteed of regular supply of product to our customers. Additionally, our supply source, NIPCO has technical supply agreement with Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)".
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