President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday said Nigeria under his watch was getting closer to the nation’s dream of full utilisation of its abundant gas potential.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President spoke at the inauguration of the Integrated Gas Handling Facility and LPG Processing and Dispensing Plants built and operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, an upstream subsidiary of the NNPC in Oredo, Edo State.
The statement was titled ‘We are getting closer to self-sufficiency in liquefied petroleum gas production, says President Buhari as he commissions processing and dispensing plants’.
Adesina qouted the President as disclosing that the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility and its associated NGLs depot would be delivering 240,000 metric tonnes of commercial grade Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Propane.
According to him, it will also deliver about 205 million standard cubic feet per day of lean gas to the domestic market.
The President said, “In addition to its import substitution benefits that brings us a step closer to self-sufficiency in LPG production and also supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises in the host communities, this project will create hundreds of direct and indirect employment opportunities for our teeming youths (both skilled and unskilled).
“Apart from being the largest onshore LPG plant in Nigeria with the potential of supplying about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s LPG demand, the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility was carefully situated at a corridor proximate to over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s LPG demand source.”
Buhari was further qouted as saying that the project was a follow-up to the commitment of his regime towards making 2020 Nigeria’s Year of the Gas.
According to the statement, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, noted that the project highlighted the commitment of NNPC to eliminating gas flares while increasing Nigeria’s value realisation from gas.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the President clearly directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC to deepen domestic gas utilisation.
Obaseki calls for review of gas sales agreement
The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, at the event called for a review of the Gas Sales Agreement to reflect market realities in the country.
Special Adviser, Media to the Edo State Government, Crusoe Osagie, disclosed this in a statement.
Obaseki said his administration would continue to provide an enabling environment to attract investment and ensure businesses thrived.
He said, “We thank NPDC for connecting us to the gas line. I appeal to you to review the Gas Sales Agreement signed several years ago such that the price of gas offered to us reflects the reality in the market today.”
He also assured that his administration would work with all to ensure peace for development.
