NNPC GMD says Corporation Working on Crashing High Price of Gooking Gas
Abuja- Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, Malam Mele Kolo Kyari, said on Monday, December 13, 2021, that the high price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) otherwise known as cooking gas was a reflection of the rising price of crude oil and its derivatives at the international market.
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Kyari spoke with reporters shortly after inaugurating Emadeb Energy Services Limited's 120MT LPG Storage and Bottling Plant in Abuja, Legit.ng reports.
He, however, assured Nigerians that the NNPC Limited was working round the clock to boost the supply of LPG to ensure a crash of the price that has apparently soared almost out of reach of a vast majority of Nigerians using the product for cooking.
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The current cost price of gas in Abuja
Residents of Abuja now spend between N8,500 and N9,500 to refill their 12kg gas cylinders. The price hitherto was between N4,000 and N6,000.
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The soaring price, according to Kyari, would soon crash once the NNPC raised its supply of the product even as he pointed out that the corporation was working hard to boost its supply.
Kyari said:
“Two things are at play; one is the supply and the other is the international price of gas. It (price) moves with the price of every other petroleum product including crude oil and its derivatives. So it is a reflection of what is happening in the international market.
“What we are doing is to increase supply. Once supply is increased the prices will come down."
The NNPC GMD said that the newly-inaugurated LPG plant was going to “reduce the cost of energy for Nigerians for the fact that LPG is cheaper than any other product you can think of, especially as cooking fuel."
He commended Emadeb Energy Services Limited for building the LPG plant in Abuja, explaining that the project aligned with and fitted into one of the steps the Federal Government had taken to provide gas for its citizenry.
He was upbeat about the company’s plan to, within the next 12 to 18 months, build a similar plant in six different locations countrywide, pointing out that the company had gone into these ambitious ventures in line with President Muhammadu Buhari's decade of gas initiative.
Investors move
He also stated on the occasion that one of the many ways investors could key into the decade of gas initiative was to have facilities like this for auto-gas conversion, and also to ensure that LPG is easily accessible by the people.
Shortly before inaugurating the plant, Kyari had expressed satisfaction that numerous partners were keying into government's aspirations of providing cheaper gas for the country, pointing out that the development would culminate in tapping from the enormous gas resources in Nigeria.
Kyari said that this would also lead to extensive domestic utilization of gas and export of the product as well as result in energy security, peace and prosperity of the country.
He urged Emadeb Energy Services Limited to count on NNPC’s support in terms of supply and provision of information to promote business investments in the country.
CEO of Emadeb Energy Services Ltd
Chief Executive Officer of Emadeb Energy Services Ltd, Mr Debo Olujimi, said that although the capacity of the plant was currently 120MT, plans were afoot to expand it to 240MT in the next 18 months.
He described the business of gas infrastructure as capital intensive, and urged the federal government to encourage private investors to get value for their money.
Olujimi noted that:
"There is a lot of value in gas. Everybody knows that gas is the way forward and the way it is, there is much gas with the decade of gas and with over two trillion cubic feet of gas reserve.
“We are about to start developing our asset with about 200 billion cubic feet of gas at the Ibom field. We intend to convert some of the gas processed out of that facility to support the local market."
Supporting the local market
The company’s CEO noted that besides supporting the local LPG market, the Emadeb Group would also support gas for power.
According to him, the country's population would have exceeded 300million "in the next 10 years. It is estimated that 60% of Nigerians will be using LPG."
He thanked the NNPC GMD for the opportunity that had been given, stating that:
“We want to see how we can get domestication of gas with the so much resources that we have on the ground in order to bring it up to the market locally so that we don’t have to export all our handlings and so that Nigerian masses will be able to buy cheap and better LPG in the market.
“This is our model and within the next year and a half, we intend doing this in six locations across the country.”
CAN laments over rising cooking gas prices, electricity tariff
In a related development, Legit.ng reports that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has lamented that the hike in electricity tariff and cooking gas prices will worsen the plight of Nigerians.
The Christian body added that the citizens already have enough on their plate with rising insecurity.
A communiqué by the General Secretary of CAN, Joseph Daramola, asked security agencies to respond quickly to distress calls from Nigerians.
Source: Legit.ng
