Christian Olise
22 November 2011, Sweetcrude, LAGOS – The Lagos State Government says it plans to deliver Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, to one million homes within the next four years.
Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Toafik Tijani, who disclosed this, also said the state government plans that 50 percent of its vehicles and 10 percent on private vehicles would run on gas. The government also plans to use gas on independent power projects.
Speaking at a recent gas conference, the Commissioner said that Lagos state intends to partner with some major oil marketers in the deployment of small sized cooking gas cylinders “as part of the efforts to encourage the use of the product to ensure clean and green environment.”
He listed the benefits of the use of LPG to include reduced carbon emission to the environment, provision of better substitute for alternative fuels, reduced health risk, cost and stress of cooking, reduced poverty and unemployment through massive job creation, among others.
Tijani noted that the country produced 12 percent of the LPG consumed in the sub-Saharan Africa but accounted for the consumption of only one percent in the West Africa sub-region.
“We have seen the Indian experience , we can adopt it to Nigeria experience. I believe that without subsidy, we cannot go too far. l know that countries like Malaysia were able to move quickly from the ratio of 100,000 people using LPG, to one million, within a short time, we can do that here too,” he said.
He continued: “The only we can do it, is to massively import cylinders because without the cylinders, there is no way to encourage the people to use LPG,” noting that Lagos accounted for 60 percent of the LPG consumed in the country, but the demand was still low.
In his own remark, Alhaji Auwalu llu, the President of Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association, also noted that LPG is a lesser polluting form of domestic and automotive fuel.
He stated that the association was committed to ensuring increased use of the product in Nigeria.
