The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) says that the utilisation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, has risen from 40,000 metric tonnes (MT) in April to 78,000 metric tonnes in July. The Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr Abdulkadir Saidu, disclosed this in statement made available to newsmen in Abuja. He said that the rise was a reflection of the fact that the combined efforts of government, industry operators and regulators in deepening LPG penetration was beginning to pay off.
Saidu expressed optimism that the volume of cooking gas consumed locally would further rise in the months ahead, as various initiatives taken by the government and investors to deepen LPG penetration began to yield fruit. “While domestic utilisation ranged between 40,000 MT and 54,000 MT from January to April 2018, the July 2019 monthly utilisation hit 78,000 MT. This figure is expected to increase in the months ahead, as some of the government and industry initiatives take root.
“Correspondingly, there has been a steady decrease in kerosene utilisation within the same period, indicating that Nigerians are increasingly finding value in the switch to LPG from household kerosene, for cooking and other domestic purposes. The rapid growth in LPG utilisation is in fulfilment of the vision of the government to deepen LPG utilisation in the country, as encapsulated in the 2017 National Gas Policy,” he said. Saidu assured Nigerians that government, regulators, operators and other stakeholders would remain focused on the formulation and implementation of a stream of policies that would see to the actualisation of the 5 million MT cumulative target by 2022. (NAN)
