This assertion was made by the company’s chief executive officer, Mr. Babs Omotowa during a presentation titled NLNG’s Role in Developing the Domestic LPG Market at the Nigerian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) conference today in Abuja, where he was represented by Nigeria LNG’s Marketing and Development Manager, Mr. Abdulkadir Ahmed.
“NLNG’s intervention in the domestic LPG market began in 2007 with the dedication of some 150,000 metric tonnes of cooking gas annually, in response to an acute shortage of the product in the market at the time.
Only last year, the company further increased this volume by sixty-six per cent (66%) to 250,000 metric tonnes in readiness to meet growing utilisation of cooking gas by Nigerians”.
According to the company’s chief executive, only about 600,000 metric tonnes of cooking gas have been absorbed by the local market since NLNG’s intervention in September 2007 because of market inefficiencies across the LPG value chain. These he added, include the absence of a functioning cylinder manufacturing plant, inadequate storage, poor transportation network and infrastructure, limited jetty availability and low-priority berthing given to LPG vessels, which have all conspired to thwart the market’s ability to absorb NLNG’s increased supply.
Advocating increased investment across the value chain to enable sustained and reliable product availability, Omotowa noted that NLNG which currently supplies some eighty per cent (80%) of the total cooking gas consumed by Nigerians, has also subsidised the product to the cost of about $50 million since the intervention began.
Other critical areas of possible intervention as highlighted by the NLNG CEO include terminal operation and development, distribution and retail, promotion and awareness and government policy and incentives for full maturity of the domestic LPG market.
Also speaking at the event, Dayo Adeshina, President, Nigerian LPG Association added:
“Due to Nigeria LNG’s intervention, the domestic LPG is not where it was when it came on the scene in September 2007. NLNG has been at the forefront of stabilising supply which has brought some obvious gains, including an almost seventy percent reduction in price from between N6,500 and N7,500 for a 12.5kg cylinder to its current price of between N2,800 and N3,500. But other stakeholders still have some way to go for the public to fully enjoy the gains of this intervention,”
NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49%), Shell Gas BV, SGBV, (25.6%), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15%), and Eni International (N.A,) N. V. S. a. r. l (10.4%).
