Why Nigeria must boost gas utilisation

THE Executive Vice Chairman, Techno Oil Limited, Mrs. Nkechi Obi has stressed the need for the Federal Government to further encourage robust utilisation of gas for domestic consumption in the country.

  Obi, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian recently, berated the huge quantity of gas flared in the country, which could be converted for economic benefits.

   The Techno Oil boss, however advocate for mass conversion from kerosene to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), as more economic and environmental-friendly fuel for domestic usage.

   “In terms of gas utilization, I don’t think they have met the industry expectations, because Nigeria is still unable to fully utilize gas, and we flare quite a very high quantity of the resources. We are not there yet, because countries like Ghana and Morrocco are doing fine. We have a good number of gas reserves, but as at today our gas consumption is still very low. So, government must wake up to this challenge,” she said.

  She said LPG is one of the many ways whereby the gas resources could be beneficial to the local economy, although there are  some challenges in the adoption of LPG as a means of generating energy in Nigerian homes today, which she identifies as; the high cost of the cylinders and shortage of filling plants.

   “We must find a way standardizing our filling stations to be able to accommodate LPG refilling capability. A situation whereby Nigerians would travel for over 14 kilometres before they can access a refilling facility works against the adoption of this product.

    “That is why, we at Techno Oil are using our Going Green Campaign to reach out to the masses on gas utilization, we have expended so much money in this advocacy, because we see it as a Corporate Social Responsibility. As at today, we have distributed well over 20,000 units of our cylinders. We have also gone into partnership with indigent mothers and market women as a way of empowering them to use LPG. We give out our cylinders at highly discounted prices in other to encourage Nigerians switch from kerosene to gas, and we believe that the federal government would soon join us on the campaign to be able to capture the entire populace,” she said.

Obi noted that there had been a slight increase in LPG consumption from 120,000 metric tonnes to about 240,000 metric tonnes in 2012.

 She said the Federal Government should support the efforts of the few investors in this industry by granting them duty waivers or reduction on cylinders and stove accessories which are mostly imported.

   “It would also be more rewarding for government to redirect the current subsidy on Kerosene to the procurement of cylinders. Studies have confirmed that high cost cylinder procurement is one of the barriers to the switch from kerosene to LPG,” she said.