Ike Amos
Abuja — The Federal Government, Thursday, disclosed that it is working with stakeholders in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas sector to build at least one gas filling plants across all the 774 local governments of the country.
The government also stated that it considering legislation that would require oil marketers to set up gas filling plants in all their petrol stations across the country.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated this in Abuja, during the commissioning of Nigerian Army Welfare Limited by Guarantee, NAWLG/Gasland Nigeria Limited, Liquefied Petroleum Gas plant in Mambila Barracks, Abuja, and the launch of LPG Micro Distribution Centres in Nigeria Army barracks and cantonments.
Kachikwu noted that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources had already engaged LPG cylinder manufacturers, encouraging them through special funding and other incentives to increase their production capacity.
He said, “We are working with the LPG cylinder manufacturers. We are giving them strong presidential backed incentives to enable them to produce LPG cylinders in this country. About four of them are getting facilities from the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, NCMBD, through the N 200 million facility that we have. They are getting import exemption for materials to be assembled for the plants.
“Once you do that, we also expect them to assemble them around the over 700 local government areas in the country. We are targeting that by the next one or two years, every local government will have gas filling plants.
“We are also investing in setting up a virtual gas pipeline. Soon, the DPR would issue a guideline whereby all filling stations would be required to set up gas filling plants in all petrol stations.”
Also speaking, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, disclosed that the NAWLG was designed to go into Public-Private Partnership with credible organizations, adding that partnership with Gasland to build a micro gas plant in barracks across Nigeria was part of the objectives of the NAWLG.
Buratai, who was represented by the Chief of Army Logistics, Major General E.O. Udoh, stated that when the projects fully come on stream with the building of micro-distribution centres for LPG across military barracks and cantonments, the military would eliminate the sale of cooking gas by the roadside in all army barracks nationwide.
In the interim, Buratai disclosed that 10 LPG micro distribution plants would be built in some barracks, with the Mambila plant serving as a supply base for all of them.
He stated that the project would create jobs for retired and discharged officers and soldiers, as well as widows of fallen personnel, while he urged these groups of people to take advantage of the project.
He further stated that the project would boost civil-military relationship, and also called on members of the public to feel free to patronise the facility.
In his own speech, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Aisha Abubakar, commended the Nigerian Army and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the initiative, while it called for the extension of the project to all barracks across the country.