The consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) in Nigeria exceeded one million metric tonnes in 2020, according to the nation’s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
The agency made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday, noting that the figure makes 2020 the first year in the nation’s history where LPG consumption had reached the one million MT threshold.
The statement reads in part: “The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is pleased to announce that Nigeria’s domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumption exceeded 1million metric tonnes in 2020, making 2020 the first year in the nation’s history where LPG consumption has reached the one million MT threshold.”
In 2019, Nigeria consumed 840,594.37MT of LPG, which indicated an increase of 60.5 percent when compared to the 635,452.061MT recorded in 2018.
PPPRA’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, said: “This steady and sustained pattern of growth culminating in the over one million metric tonnes of LPG domestic consumption milestone in 2020 has placed the country first in West Africa and one of the leading LPG consuming nations on the continent.”
According to him, the feat shows that the nation is on track to meet the five million MT target by 2022.
In his words: ” With this laudable feat, the country is on track to meet the 5million MT by 2022 target, set in the Nigeria Gas Policy (NGP) of 2017, which translates to an average of 1million MT/year, provided we collectively sustain and ramp up intervention efforts and initiatives of the government and all stakeholders.”
He noted that the attainment of the one million MT domestic utilisation milestone was a testimony to the progress made so far by the Federal Government in ensuring the provision of alternative sources of fuel to Nigerians in place of petrol, diesel and kerosene.
The statement added that already, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited had increased its allocation of LPG to the domestic market from 350,000MT to 450,000MT in 2021 in order to support the goal.