OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Group Managing Director, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, has said Nigeria’s current energy mix is dominated by biomass-based fuels which account for about 82 percent while natural gas accounts for just 8.8 percent.
He made the statement at a conference held in Abuja on Thursday, calling on investors to take hold of the huge gap.
“As we speak today, Nigeria’s energy mix is dominated by biomass-based fuels which account for about 82 percent while Natural Gas accounts for just 8.8%. This implies a very high potential for explosive growth in the LPG business which will enable more players to come on board”, he said.
Nigeria is basically a gas nation. According to the NNPC, the country has around 202 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves plus about 600 TCF unproven gas reserves.
Baru clarified, that contrary to the thinking that Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, also known as cooking gas, is only for a certain class of people, the LPG market in Nigeria has room for everyone to operate, contending that the challenges faced in the nation’s LPG sector provide opportunities for people from all strata of the Nigerian society to make a fortune.
According to the GMD, the infrastructural bottlenecks and lack of institutional and commercial regulatory framework which bedeviled the gas sector could be exploited and converted into wealth-creating opportunities.
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“We see the need to put in place relevant policies and regulations to stimulate the industry and encourage LPG utilisation, while the infrastructure deficits provide opportunities for investments to play critical roles in the industry. From large scale to medium and small scale enterprises, there is a place for everyone in the Nigerian LPG business landscape”, he stated.
Dr. Baru expressed concern that stakeholders were still not forthcoming with solutions to unlock the economic potentials in the LPG sector.
He said the Corporation was currently implementing some key initiatives aimed at consolidating and expanding its footprint across the LPG business value chain, adding that the nation’s LPG production would increase to about 5million tons per annum from the current 3million tons upon the completion of the ongoing projects.
He called on other stakeholders to invest in the sector as the corporation was committed to the accelerated development of the domestic gas market to significantly drive the multiplier effect of gas.