The Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) on Tuesday said it was not responsible for the supply shortfall of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas and the consequent price hike across the country.
It explained that marketers were unable to off-take the full 450,000MTPA of LPG allocated to the Nigerian market by the company due to various factors.
Mr Austin Ogbogbo, Marketing Manager, NLNG , made the clarification during an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos.
He said the 450,000MT allocated to the domestic market was the total volume of butane produced annually by the NLNG, adding that only about 375,000MT was procured by the gas marketers in 2020.
According to him, the inability of the marketers to off-take the LPG was due to logistics and infrastructure challenges as well as other factors in the industry.
He said that this meant that the NLNG supplied over 80 per cent of its LPG sales (Butane/cooking gas) to the Nigerian market and was therefore prioritising the domestic market.
Ogbogbo said the NLNG’s current maximum Butane production can only meet
about 40 per cent of the domestic market demand.
He said the balance was supplied by other domestic producers or via imports because NLNG’s production alone was not sufficient.
Ogbogbo, however, expressed optimism that NLNG would increase its production capacity by 35% with completion of Train 7, which will in turn boost domestic supply.
He said NLNG was primarily an export company that produces 22 MTPA of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and five MTPA of Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs).
Ogbogbo said the company was also working to supply LNG to the domestic market from 2022 to boost power supply and industrial development across the country.
The price of 12.5kg of cooking gas has risen from N3,200 a few months back to about N7,000 in some parts of the country.
