Marking 15 years of domestic LPG supply in conjunction with the Nigerian LPG Association at a conference in Lagos, NLNG’s managing director and chief executive officer, Dr. Philip Mshelbila, said, the investment in supply would intentionally spark commitment along the value chain, including vertical integrations.
He stated that, NLNG was doing this through its further investment in Train 7, which will add about 35% to its current capacity when completed, subject to gas supply and gas quality. He added that other domestic producers of LPG would need to make investments to enable their product to become available to the domestic market, rather than exporting it.
He also said the interventions were needed to reduce the switching cost to LPG, encourage more adoption, reduce the cost of funding to support infrastructure expansion and growth as well as deliberate government action to encourage non-export of LPG by producers. Other urgent interventions required as outlined by Dr. Mshelbila also include; clarity of regulatory guidelines and requirements, alignment of government enforcement agencies and the widespread dissemination of information on safe practices in the handling and use of LPG.
He noted that supply and gas gathering initiatives face major challenges in recent times, adding that due to floods ravaging operational sites of NLNG’s feedgas suppliers, there has been a state of emergency requiring declarations of force majeure. He, however, assured continued operations at the Company’s production plant.