Apparently worried about the high cost and the consequent low usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), its marketers have urged the Federal Government to intervene in the LPG market with a sum of N10bn.
According to the body, in order to make cooking gas and its associated utilities affordable to the masses, government should make a one-off intervention with 25 million cylinders to enable many Nigerians to acquire cylinders and embrace the use of LPG.
Apparently worried about the high cost and the consequent low usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), its marketers have urged the Federal Government to intervene in the LPG market with a sum of N10bn.
According to the body, in order to make cooking gas and its associated utilities affordable to the masses, government should make a one-off intervention with 25 million cylinders to enable many Nigerians to acquire cylinders and embrace the use of LPG.
The President of the LPG Marketers Association, Alhaji Auwulu Ilu, who made the plea in Lagos last week made reference to the recent death of about 11 people in Edo and Delta States as a result of kerosene explosion, stated that if the appeal is accepted, the association assures of the importation of one million cylinders before the end of 2012.
“From the statistics we have at the moment, we are having less than 170 trucks for the whole country, and with the volume we want to move at least before the end of this year, we will require about 1,000 trucks that can move the product from one part of the country to another, particularly from Lagos depots, Warri and Kaduna refineries subsequently when they are on stream.”
“We are also looking at how we can get cheap funds so that we bring in additional LPG trucks because it is one of the major hindrances to moving the LPG either from the refinery depots to the other locations. Sometimes you have products you want to move but the trucks are not there.
According to him, Gas Terminalling Limited, Oando, Total, Chimons Gas, Sea Gas and Ultimate Gas, are some of the corporate members of the association that would bring in the one million cylinders this year as part of the National Cylinder Scheme.
“We are reviving the national cylinder scheme under which these companies are injecting one million cylinders. We are hoping that between now and the end of the year we will bring in about one million cylinders to ensure that with the cost many people will start using cooking gas,” he said.
He said that a synergy between his association and the Federal Government, including the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, would give rise to the use of LPG by many Nigerians.
Ilu, who is Managing Director of Ultimate Gas Limited, called on the Bank of Industry to create a special window for LPG financing, saying that the target of the companies was to bring in 3.5 kilogramme cylinders so that many Nigerians could afford them.
Noting that the firms bringing in LPG were doing so as part of the Nigerian Cylinder Scheme started by the association, he explained that the idea was to create new users of LPG on daily basis.
He expressed concern that many Nigerians were dying as a result of kerosene explosion, and that this was one of the reasons why government should join in the promotion of LPG.
Ilu said, “It is very regrettable that 11 people died as a result of kerosene explosion. It is unfortunate. I will like to use the opportunityto call on government to seriously deploy the LPG that is being produced in Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians. I am happy to announce that the stakeholders have done quite a lot in making this gas available.
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