The Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has blamed the scarcity and consequent rising cost of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) otherwise known as cooking gas, on the inability of marketers to offtake the 450,000MTPA allocated to the Nigerian market by the company.
NLNG attributed the inability of the marketers to offtake the LPG to logistics and infrastructure challenges as well as other factors in the industry.
Marketing Manager, NLNG, Austin Ogbogbo, during an interactive session with journalists, clarified that the NLNG was not responsible for the supply shortfall of LPG and the consequent price hike across the country.
He stated that the country’s LPG production remains undermined by the lack of refineries, forcing the company to deploy Butane to help to bridge the domestic demand gap.
According to data shared by NLNG, of the 450,000MT allocated to the domestic market by the NLNG, only about 375,000MT was procured by the gas marketers in 2020.
The firm said that with the completion of its Train 7 project, it would be able to increase its production capacity by 35 per cent, thereby supporting domestic market needs.
The NLNG had earlier stated that its current maximum Butane production can only meet about 40 per cent of the domestic market demand.
According to the company, in order to achieve its aspiration for domestic supply, a dedicated 13,000MT vessel, LPG Alfred Temile, delivers the product to the market through Lagos and Port Harcourt terminals.
Ogbogbo He said the balance was supplied by other domestic producers or via imports because NLNG’s production alone was not sufficient.
Ogbogbo said the company was also working to supply LNG to the domestic market from 2022 to boost power supply and industrial development across the country.
