Minister of State for Petroleum Timipre Sylva has noted that the pricing of gas was currently a major threat to the availability and affordability of fuel in Nigeria, disclosing that the government was working on gas funding models to ameliorate the price hike.

“The federal government was leveraging the gas pricing framework and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gas development fund to create an appropriate funding model to support off-take of the gas, especially among vulnerable groups,” the minister said on Saturday at the commissioning of a gas plant in Katsina.

The 100-tonne Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant constructed by Butane Energy Company. Mr Sylva said the plant was coming at the time several projects that would address gas availability, accessibility and affordability in the country were being put in place.

He was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Sani Gwarzo.

The minister added that smaller countries with fewer gas reserves than Nigeria such as Kuwait have higher per capita consumption of gas due to their investment in gas infrastructure.

He urged Butane Energy to make their plant a role model of LPG depots by deploying technology to drive market penetration, creation of financial instruments to incentivise off-take of its bottled gas.

“And also investment in human capital development to attract and retain a resilient workforce and operation in a globally acceptable and responsible manner,” he said.

Butane Energy chairman, Isah Inuwa, said the aspiration of the company under the first phase of the investment programme was to have five plants in Northern Nigeria.

“Kano will have 180 metric tons, Bauchi 120 metric tons; in Abuja, 180 metric tons and in Kaduna, 180 metric tons,” he said.

The governor of the state Aminu Masari who inaugurated the plant said there was a need for a lot of sensitisation for people to understand that gas is cheaper and cleaner energy to use.

Mr Masari called on stakeholders to devise means of making the initial purchase of gas facilities such as the cylinder and the hose affordable.

He promised all investors that were willing to invest in the state of his administration’s support.