Managing Director, NIPCO Plc Sunday Teotia says its recent investment in the storage facility for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas will help improve the availability of the product across the country.
Teotia at the 8th annual international conference and exhibition organized by Nigerian Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA) in Abuja explained that, NIPCO in 2017, improved its storage capacity and other LPG infrastructure to 5,600 MT to meet growing the demand.
Prior to this, the company storage facility was 4,800 metric tonnes (MT) maintained since 2009.
“We commissioned the biggest LPG single sphere in Africa with a capacity of 5,600MT and increased the loading arms in the gantry to five in a bid to ease loading of trucks for onward distribution of the product to all the nooks and crannies of the country,” Teotia stated
He maintained that the investments committed over the years by NIPCO has pushed it to its current position where it now controls a major share of the LPG market with its massive storage facilities and other infrastructure put in place to aid access to the product by the populace.
According to him, the peerless service being provided by the company has made its depot a first choice by many bottling plants and others in the business of LPG, adding that, he improved storage facility and product reception at the terminal has been a major boost in the effective turnaround of LPG vessels berthing at the Apapa jetty.
Throwing his company’s weight behind the Federal Government’s agenda to grow the LPG sub-sector, the NIPCO’s boss promised continuous and deliberate efforts in supporting government’s genuine desire to make LPG a cooking fuel of choice among Nigerians
“We diversified in the gas realm in 2009 with the inauguration of a state of the earth LPG plant in Lagos with a total storage capacity of 4,800MT spread across three spheres and a three point loading gantry.
As at the time of its inauguration, it was the biggest LPG storage in the country thus creating veritable avenue to store gas and distribute effectively with the scores of LPG trucks commissioned by the company,” he said
Asserting the claims of Teotia, Managing Director, Nigeria LNG Limited, Mr. Tony Attah on a visit to the company’s LPG plant said; “I never in my wildest imagination believe that this kind of facility exists in Apapa here.
I can see also very huge investment that NIPCO has put into up scaling the volume of LPG that they can be received into the country. For me, that is the real game changer and we are committed to continue to support NIPCO and indeed Nigeria to bring about the positive change in terms of energy availability,” he assured.
Teotia further added that, NIPCO as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to empower potential LPG users has donated cooking gas accessories which included; cylinders, hoses, burners among others, to some communities in Auchi, Edo state; Apapa, Lagos state; and some public schools in Lagos.
The feat, according to him, has not only created lot of awareness on the benefits of gas – as domestic cooking fuel – but has also served as drawback to deforestation in the country.
“In the realm of creating meaningful access to end users, we have inaugurated several on skid plants at the company’s retail stations across the country. This is aside from some dedicated LPG filling stations in some focal markets,’’ he said.
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