When the first-ever road to Bonny Island, Rivers State worth N120 billion is completed, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas will crash significantly, the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).
This follows the announcement of a partnership between NLNG and a stocking company, StockGap Fuels Limited, to boost LPG supply in the local market with a ‘massive’ investment.
The new Bonny road is being built in partnership with the Federal Government through tax rebates at N60 billion each. The NLNG says the completion of the road would allow trucks to access its LPG plant in Bonny from all parts of the country.
The company said access to cooking gas and a reduction in its price in Nigeria are expected to receive a boost in the near future following their collaboration with a stocking company, StockGap Fuels Limited. Both companies announced what they called massive investments in gas infrastructure.
The firms announced their plans during the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers held in Port Harcourt in the week.
According to the Managing Director of NLNG, Philip Mshebila, the company is providing funds to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc to complete Bodo-Bonny link road in Rivers state to create access for trucks to lift LPG from its facilities in Bonny Island, Rivers state.
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Similarly, Obioma Ebisike, terminal manager, StockGap Fuels Ltd, Port Harcourt, disclosed that the company is currently carrying out a major expansion of its LPG storage facility in Port Harcourt to boost local access of customers to the product.
Mshebila said currently NLNG only delivers LPG to a few terminal operators in Lagos and Rivers states only due to the dearth of gas infrastructure in the country.
He said that with the expected completion of the Bodo- Bonny Road, trucks would then be able to lift LPG directly from NLNG facilities in Bonny Island to various customers in the country.
With this, he noted that there would be a reduction in the price of cooking as the use of terminal storage, the associated additional security and other overheads would be avoided.
Speaking with journalists during the event, Ebisike stated that the company intends to increase its storage capacity by 50 per cent in 2023 and double by 2024.
According to him, the company is the only one in the South-South region that has a terminal that can receive LPG directly from NLNG.
StockGap Fuels, he noted, is a major player in the downstream sector of the energy industry and is involved in supply and distribution of refined petroleum products with emphasis on the white products such as LPG, premium motor spirit (PMS or petrol) and dual purpose kerosene (DPK).
Ebisike stated that the investment the firm was making in the expansion of its facilities is because of a need to improve access to LPG and other petroleum products in Nigeria.
Stakeholders at the event commended the company for the massive investment it had already made by providing one of the largest LPG storage facilities in the country which is put at 15,000 metric tonnes.
Ebisike called on other firms to invest in gas infrastructure as this is still very underdeveloped in Nigeria.
“Today, it is StockGap Terminal that allows NLNG to deliver gas to customers in this region. We need more terminals in places such as Onitsha and so on. This will lead to a crash in price of LPG,” Ebisike said.
NLNG had earlier poured lamentations over negative impacts of oil theft and weak demand locally to be reasons for slow progress on LPG and decade of gas scheme, but reiterated its commitment to the ‘decade of gas’.
