Ike Amos
Lagos — The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Thursday, disclosed that the supply of cooking gas, also known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), nationwide, dipped by 20.48 per cent to 85,264.803 metric tonnes (MT) in August 2021.
This may have been one of the reasons for the unending rise in the price of cooking gas across the country, despite the abundance of natural gas and huge volume of the commodity flared on a daily basis.
Specifically, the price of the commodity had recently risen from about N5,000 for a 12.5 kilogramme (KG) cylinder to between N8,000 and N8,500, bringing untold hardship upon users of the commodity d worsening the country’s poverty rate.
In a statement in Abuja, Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr. Abdulkadir Saidu, stated that the volume of LPG supplied in August suggests a decrease of about 21,959.781 MT compared to the 107,224.584 MT supplied in the month of July.
He added that the August supply figure was also lower than the 102,787.234MT of the commodity which was supplied in the month of June 2021.
Giving a breakdown of the LPG supply data, Saidu noted that 38,040.457 MT was sourced locally by Ever Oil, Stockgap, NIPCO, 11 Plc, Greenville Natural Gas, PNG Gas Limited, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon Ltd, while 47,224.346 MT was imported by NIPCO, Matrix, Algasco, Techno Oil, Prudent, A.A Rano, Stockgap.
He stated that additional analysis of the data on importation in the month of August, showed that 21,606.301 MT was imported from the USA, while 13,044.266 was imported from Algeria and 12,573.779 MT was brought into the country from Equatorial Guinea.
On the other hand, he explained that out of the 38,040.457 MT sourced locally, 7,042.058 MT was sourced by Ever Oil; 9,429.761 MT by Stockgap; 7,687.112 MT by NIPCO; 4,761.626 MT by 11 plc and 440.380 MT by Greenville Rumuji, River State.
The PPPRA chief executive further stated that PNG Gas Limited in Ebedei, Delta State supplied 651.490 MT into the market, while NPDC, Oredo, Benin State provided 1,055.310 MT and Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon Limited, Kwale, Delta State, discharged 6,972.720MT.
Similarly, he added that 11,262.04MT of propane was sourced locally and supplied into the energy market by NPDC and Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon.
Saidu said: “It is worthy to note that since the declaration of the “Decade of Gas”, by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR and the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, the nation has witnessed a significant increase in the volume of LPG produced locally.
“This is due to the commitment of the Federal Government in promoting gas penetration, to ensure a clean source of energy for cooking, power generation and transportation.
“The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as the first law that recognizes the Oil and Gas midstream sector will promote and protect gas-based investments and optimize the nation’s enormous gas potentials while ensuring that Nigeria transit to become a net-zero emission nation.
“The PPPRA wishes to reiterate its continued support for the Federal Government’s policy to deepen LPG penetration in the country and create a healthy life for Nigerians.”
