FG’s Proposed Gas Pipeline Excites Operators

The Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Operators of Nigeria has commended government’s   plan to establish new gas trunk lines that will cut across the country, saying that it will ensure availability of more products to the consumers and for export.
This commendation is coming on the heels of President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) last week to proceed with the detailed design of the new gas trunk line.
Our correspondent gathered that the proposed gas pipeline is to cut across Rivers State up to Lagos while another one will run from the South and connect to the North.
According to President Jonathan who was represented at a function in Rivers State by the vice president Alhaji Namadi Sambo, consultants have already been appointed to design a railway line that will connect Lagos through Rivers State to Calabar in connection with the project.
Meanwhile the president of the Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Auwalu Ilu has described the idea as a good one and according to him, if implemented will make gas more available.
Speaking exclusively to Shipping Position Weekly, Auwalu who explained that although the primary objective of the project will be to collect natural gas however added that “in collecting natural gas, you also have to separate the LPG made of Butane and Propane, most of these process will definitely get LPG out of them and this will in turn make more gas available”.
“Why do we import kerosene at a very expensive price when we have enough LPG that we are even exporting because we produce more than we are consuming, all what we have to do is to convert people from using firewood and kerosene to using LPG”, he stated.
He however lamented the low rate at which LPG; otherwise known as the cooking gas is being patronized in the country, he said that even though there has been a marginal increase recently in the rate of consumption, it is not enough. “The growth is taking place at a very low pace, but we are still trying to educate the people in collaboration with government on the advantages”, he said.
He also expressed optimism that on the eventual passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) the LPG market will tremendously be transformed as there is expected to be plans for a lot of gas processing plants.
 “There will be a lot of projects in the pipeline to produce LPG ashore, most of the LPG are currently produced offshore, which is the problem even in the downstream, this leads to logistics problems which makes the gas very expensive, but by the time this law is on ground there will be a lot of LPG; not necessarily from the refineries, but from the gas processing plants” he explained.