The minister of state for petroleum resources Timipre Sylva has said that more private and public sector collaboration will be encouraged as the country steps up effort to realise its target of boosting domestic gas utilisation.
The minister made the comment while commissioning Rainoil 8,000 metric ton Liquefied Natural Gas, LPG facility in Lagos on Thursday, August 6.
He said government has set a yearly 5 million metric tonnes of LPG consumption and is committed to ensure the objective is met.
Sylva, said Nigeria is lowest LPG consumer in Africa despite abundance gas deposit in the country.
He said government has already declared the year 2020 as Nigeria’s year of gas, adding that everything possible would be done to achieve that policy.
While commending Rainoil for the massive investment, the minister said the country is already beginning to see rise in gas consumption across various sectors of the economy.
In his remarks, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, Mele Kyari said the Corporation has already begun activities around developing gas production and usage initiatives.
Kyari, said that NNPC will continue to lead activities to enhance gas utilisation in the country and in particular feeding major utilisation entities like the manufacturing, power sector among others.
Earlier, CEO of Rainoil, Gabriel Ogbechie said the company has invested much in the downstream subsector of the oil industry with 50 million tons capacity for petroleum products storage each in Calabar, Delta and Lagos.
Ogbechie, said the LPG project located at Ijegun in Lagos is part of strategy to boost gas development and deepen its penetration in the country.
Source: Oriental News