*Argentina accounts for 23.2mt
Ike Amos
02 February 2019, Sweetcrude, Abuja — Nigeria, despite the abundance of gas in the country, imported 42.09 million metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, also known as cooking gas, the month of December 2018, according to data released by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
In its LPG Vessel Receipt and Discharge Data for December 2018, the PPPRA disclosed that the country imported 48.27 percent of total LPG supplied in the country in the month under review. Total LPG supplied was put at 87.19 million, both from domestic and foreign sources.
Of the total import, the report noted that 23.2 million metric tonnes (vacuum) of cooking gas was imported from Argentina, representing 26.61 per cent of total LPG supplied in the period under review, while import from other destinations, including the United States, stood at 18.89 million metric tonnes, representing 21.67 percent of total LPG supplied in the country in the month under review.
Specifically, the report disclosed that a total of 87.19 million metric tonnes of LPG was supplied in the country in December 2018, with 48.27 percent sourced from import, while 51.7 percent was sourced both from local and unlisted sources.
Furthermore, from local sources, the PPPRA report noted that 34.38 million metric tonnes of LPG was supplied by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company, NLNG, from its Bonny terminal, representing 39.4 percent of total LPG supplied in the month under review.
From the report, two unlisted sources accounted for 3.86 million metric tonnes and 6.86 million metric tonnes of LPG, bringing their combined supplies to 10.72 million metric tonnes, representing 12.3 percent of total LPG supplied in December 2018.
From the local sources, the report noted that three ships lifted LPG from Bonny for delivery to the Nigerian market. The three ships, according to the report are MT Navigator Capricorn and MT Mathraki.
The vessels, the report disclosed, all arrived at various jetties at the Apapa Ports, between November 24 and December 29, 2018, while they discharged their consignments between December 2 and December 30, 2018.
The various consignments of LPG were discharged at depots belonging to NAVGas, NIPCO, Puma Energy, Matrix, Stockgap and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had in January 2019, said it is set to implement an effective commercial framework that would halt the export of propane and butane which are major components in the production of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, also known as cooking gas.
The NNPC, in a statement, noted that the move to stop the export of propane and butane which was anchored by the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the Corporation would enable it to boost supply of LPG to the domestic market, thereby, leading to a natural downward slide in the price of the product in the country.
Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division, COMD, of the Corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, had said, “Currently some of our butane and propane entitlements are exported largely due to lack of vessels to make sure that these things come into the domestic markets and the absence of a commercial framework. What we are going to do is to make sure we put the right commercial framework in place so that those exports are converted into domestic consumption”.
