Techno Oil, an indigenous oil and gas company, which obtained Federal Government approval for the construction of its LPG manufacturing plant at Kajola, Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos State could bring it on stream before the end of the year.
Construction began in last year from a project that derived impetus from participation in the Federal Government Economic Recovery and Growth Plan Focus Lab. Focus Labs are designed as workshop-style closed-door investment fora between private sector and senior government officials, serving as forums for detailed discussions and interactions to address some of the inhibitions to business investments in the country.
The ERGP focus newsletter for December 2018 sent to BusinessDay indicates that the project is nearing completion and may commence production soon.
“The assembly plant is about 65 per cent completed and is expected to be ready for commissioning by second quarter 2019,” the document said.
The plant has an installed production capacity of five million 4 high quality LPG cylinders of various sizes annually. The company also recently completed the construction of a 12,000 metric tonnes capacity Liquefied Petroleum Gas terminal in Lagos.
It is currently into the production of 6kg and 12.5 kg LPG cylinders while plans are afoot to commence industrial gas cylinder production soon. Using raw materials, including steel coil for the production of gas cylinders, the plant started with small volume production of the cylinders.
“However, with the granting of incentives for machines required for the construction of the plant, Techno Oil is set to reduce the importation of LPG cylinders into Nigeria, deepen the adoption of LPG usage in the country as well as the switch from firewood and kerosene to LPG which is cleaner and safer,” the document said.
During a recent working visit by a Federal Government team to the LPG Gas Cylinder plant and the 12,000 ton LPG storage terminal at Kirikiri Industrial Estate, Apapa, Lagos, significant progress was noticed on the backward integration initiatives.
The completion of the plant is expected to reduce Nigeria’s importation of gas cylinders mostly from Asian countries and help backward integration in the country.
It is also expected to help ramp up the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and reduce the use of firewood and kerosene, energy sources environmentalists warn are both dangerous to human health as well as the environment.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
