Despite the challenges being witnessed in the oil and gas sector, Rainoil Limited has continued to contribute to the economic development of the country with its sterling efforts to ensuring in-country utilization and deepening of gas penetration in the nation, as it launched its Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) facility with a tank capacity of 8000MT and a fleet capacity of about 40 LPG trucks
This project invariably aligns with the federal government’s priority objective to attain 5million MT of LPG consumption by 2022. Even though to achieve this, Nigeria requires about $6bn worth of investment (over 10,000 trucks, 3000 filling plants.) as it will create over 1million jobs across the LPG value chain.
It will interest you to know that Nigeria is a net exporter of LPG producing an average of 4-5million tones annually. According to the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA), the domestic demand for LPG has seen an increase from 600,000 MT to about 840,000 MT, indicating an increase of 40% as at December ,2019
Accordingly, the NLPGA estimates over N10 billion will be generated by switching 50 percent of kerosene and firewood users to LPG
Nigeria’s annual per capita consumption of LPG at 2.3kg remains lower than the West African regional average of 3.5kg and the sub-Saharan African average of 2.5kg.
However, about 58 percent of LPG consumed in Nigeria is imported. The NLNG the major domestic supplier of LPG aims to increase its supply to the domestic market to 350,000 MT in 2020. Gas supply from NLNG’s Bonny plant is expected expand by 35 percent when its Train 7 project is completed.
Speaking at the commissioning of the multi facility LPG business which will trade as ‘Rainoil Gas’ at Ijegun, Lagos The Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva; the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari applauded Rainoil Limited for its genuine move to boost domestic utilization and gas penetration in the country.
The Minister described Rainoil Limited, a leading integrated company operating in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas as partnering with the government in gas utilization and development of the gas sector in the country.
He affirmed that Rainoil Ltd. is really working in tandem with the vision of the federal government, in making gas a preferred fuel in the country.
‘I am excited at what I’m seeing here today. Everything can speak for itself. As you can see, energy is very important in the global economy and I am glad that Nigerian’s are playing key roles in the oil and gas industry.
He noted that Rainoil’s investment in gas development aligns with President Buhari’s agenda in the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), adding that the government has declared 2020 as “the year of gas”. He stated that the country has sufficient gas reserves to meet its energy needs and was happy to see Rainoil align with the governments drive to deepen LPG penetration and attain 5 Million MT of LPG consumption by 2022.
He said that more private and public sector collaboration would be encouraged as the country steps up effort to realise its target of boosting domestic gas utilization.
Kyari, who lamented that Nigeria is a net importer of petroleum products, announced that NNPC is ever ready and willing to support all the companies that are making effort in accomplishing the federal government developmental agenda.
‘we believe that gas is our next instrument for developing our economy, and we commend Rainoil in its effort in ensuring the use of gas in the country.
According to the NNPC GMD, the corporation has already begun activities around developing gas production and usage initiatives.
He noted that NNPC would continue to lead activities to enhance gas utilization in the country and in particular, feeding major utilization entities like manufacturing and power sectors among others.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Group Managing Director, Rainoil Limited, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie said that the decision to invest in growing the LPG sector started in 2018.
According to him, ‘RAINOIL GAS will meet the energy needs of customers at the retail end in the coming months. There are filling plants in process where LPG can be supplied in cylinders to consumers.
Ogbechie believes that the expansion of Rainoil Limited perfectly aligns with the company’s vision and mission to continually proffer solutions to fill the voids in the energy sector.
Nigeria has the fastest growing LPG sector in the world with a projected LPG market size of $10 billion, with the domestic demand seeing an increase of 40%. Rainoil Gas will support the Federal Government’s policy on deepening LPG penetration and will improve domestic consumption of LPG nationwide. The business will also increase domestic storage flexibility of LPG.
He affirmed that Rainoil Gas will provide direct and indirect employment opportunities, including training, skills acquisition, transfer and enhancement. Its operations also have an added environmental protection benefit as it reduces gas flaring and encourages the use of cleaner fuels
He said that Rainoil Limited has grown over the last 20 years to include: 3 ultra-modern petroleum product storage depots- 50 million litre capacity each in Delta State, Cross River State and Lagos State; over 81 retail outlets across the country; a fleet of over 100 tank trucks for efficient delivery of products and 1 shipping vessel with a total capacity of over 20,000 metric tonnes. Rainoil Limited remains a wholly indigenous company.
‘We believe this investment will increase domestic storage flexibility for LGP, provide direct and indirect employment opportunities, including training, skills acquisition, transfer and enhacement. It will also add environmental protection benefits of reducing gas flaring and encouraging the use of cleaner fuel.’ Ogbechie stated
‘Our investment in the project is substantial, as we now account for 16.6 percent of the LPG storage in the country.
We require the support of NNPC and the NLNG to ensure adequate product supply to the facility. We remained committed to investing across the entire LPG value chain as we have some infracstructural projects in progress
