Domestic consumption of cooking gas hits 90,000 metric tonnes in January, says PPPRA

Latest figures from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), indicate that the average domestic consumption Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) popularly called ‘cooking gas’ hit about 89.91 thousand metric tonnes (KMT) in January 2020.  With the figure, the Agency said Nigeria exceeded its LPG consumption target for the month.

As a custodian of petroleum products data bank, the Agency provides reliable data for all petroleum products operations in the country (imports and local) in line with her mandate number three (3) of the PPPRA Act 2003.

According to government’s priority objective of attaining 5millionMT of LPG consumption by the year 2022, which puts national consumption target at 83.33KMT per month from 2018 to 2022 estimates.

PPPRA said the Federal Government has demonstrated its commitment to gas revolution priority by constituting and inaugurating the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) Committee to drive the deepening of LPG Penetration as well as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Auto-Gas Utilisation, among others in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

Recall that over the past two years, domestic LPG consumption has steadily been on an upward swing, as awareness on global warming increases.

PPPRA attributed the impressive growth to the impact of Federal Government policy and programme on deepening LPG penetration nationwide; increased awareness and utilisation of LPG in the domestic economy; and improved performance of private sector operators in the products supply and distribution chain. Others are entrance of new players (investors) in the sector as a result of the enabling environment created, and inclusion of new LPG storage and reception facilities in the NLNG domestic supply chain.

The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, said in Abuja, that given the current trend, the Federal Government’s target of 5MMT by 2022 is achievable, if the current tempo of sensitisation and coordination is sustained and improved upon by government, regulators and industry players.

He added that the Agency is committed to the realisation of this objective and will continually strive to ensure the sustenance and improvement of the enabling commercial environment accordingly.