Mr Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has said the Federal Government has set up plans to expand access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, for rural dwellers.
Kyari spoke on Wednesday at the virtual Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum.
It was reported that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency had on Tuesday announced that Nigeria’s domestic consumption of LPG exceeded one million Metric Tonnes (MT) in 2020.
According to the available statistics, total consumption of LPG in Nigeria was about 50,000 MT in 2007.
Kyari said, “Nigeria is currently witnessing increased domestic gas demand in the industrial and power sectors, leading to increased production and reduced gas flaring.
“Nigeria has also witnessed increased household access to gas networks and LPG in the main cities. There are deliberate plans to expand that access to rural areas.”
According to him, there are conscious efforts by the Federal Government aimed at deepening domestic gas consumption through the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and LPG.
He said the moves included the autogas scheme, the National Gas Expansion Programme, and construction of gas networks such as Escravos Gas Pipeline System (ELPS), Obiafu-Obrikon-Oben(OB3) and Ajaokuta -Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipelines.
Kyari said Nigeria is a gas-rich nation with proven reserves of 203TCF.
“We are not just a petroleum country, we are also a gas-rich nation. We are utilising the available resources of today to create the opportunities of tomorrow,” Kyari added.