Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has attributed the high price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to the rising crude oil price and its derivatives at the world market.

Mr Kyari stated this at the inauguration of the Emadeb Energy Services Limited’s 120MT LPG Storage and Bottling Plant in Abuja.

The NNPC GMD said the newly-inaugurated LPG plant would “reduce the cost of energy for Nigerians for the fact that LPG is cheaper than any other product you can think of, especially as cooking fuel.”

He, however, assured Nigerians that the NNPC was working to boost the supply of LPG to crash the price.

He commended the firm for building the LPG plant in Abuja, explaining that the project aligned with one of the steps the federal government had taken to make gas available.

Mr Kyari lauded the plan by the company to build similar plants in six different locations across the country within the next 12 to 18 months.

“We are aware that a lot of institutions and companies are doing this across the country. We are selecting this in line with Mr President’s objectives to make this the decade of gas,” the NNPC boss stated.

Mr Kyari also stated that one of the ways investors could key into the decade of the gas initiative is to have facilities for autogas conversion and ensure that LPG is easily accessible to people.

Mr Kyari further noted that the global energy transition had made the investment climate ripe for gas even as he assured those investing in the LPG project that the NNPC would guarantee gas supply to their facilities.

“We know that the investment climate is very ripe for auto-gas and auto fuel, especially in terms of LPG as a transition fuel globally. So, we know that this is a big market for Nigerian companies, and this is one of the great companies that we have around,” explained Mr Kyari. “As NNPC, we will come in, and we will guarantee supply. That is very important for us as a business. As you are aware, we are NNPC Limited in Nigeria, and we also have to make money for Nigeria. We will be there in the upstream to provide the gas.”

Chief Executive Officer of Emadeb, Debo Olujimi, said although the plant’s capacity was 120MT, plans were underway to expand it to 240MT.

“We are about to start developing our asset with about 200 billion cubic feet of gas at the Ibom field. We intend to convert some of the gas processed out of that facility to support the local market,” said Mr Olujimi. “It is capital intensive doing gas infrastructure, and government needs to encourage private investors so that private people can come in with funds and equipment to get the value.”

(NAN)