Oil & Gas
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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is determined to reduce the pressure on kerosene and firewood consumption in the country. It has already concluded plans to step up the supply of cooking gas
| By Anayo Ezugwu | May 12, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has concluded plans to increase the domestic consumption of liquefied natural gas, otherwise known as cooking gas, across the country.Andrew Yakubu, group managing director of the corporation, made this commitment while delivering a key note address, on April 23, at the combined graduation ceremony of chief officers’ management development programme of batches 069 to 072 at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.
Yakubu said as part of efforts to reduce the pressure on kerosene consumption, the NNPC “is refocusing its strategy to encourage and aggressively grow the consumption of LPG which provides a cleaner and cheaper energy alternative. NNPC’s footprint in the domestic gas market has attained unprecedented growth. With the commissioning of the NPDC’s 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day Oredo gas processing facilities and the acquisition of new assets, the NPDC is now the biggest producer and supplier of gas into the domestic market, contributing over 400 million standard cubic feet of gas per day,” he said.
According to Yakubu, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, was being repositioned to become a medium-sized independent exploration and production company with a production capacity of at least 250,000 barrels per day by the year 2015. He said that currently, NPDC’s assets base has grown with the assignment of new oil mining leases stressing that the management under his watch was determined to further pursue new strategies to grow production to the target of 250,000 barrels per day by 2015. The current production level is 130,000 barrels per day.
The NNPC helmsman said in line with the strategic direction to support the federal government to increase national crude oil reserve and productivity to 40 billion and 4 million barrels per day, the corporation has started an aggressive exploration campaign in offshore, onshore and the inland basins of Chad, Anambra, Benue, Bida and Sokoto Dahomey. “We are as well carrying out infield developments which have resulted in increased reserve and with the intensified approach, including the expedited action on new projects like Egina etc the reserve and production targets are realizable.”
The GMD revealed that over 1,000 square kilometres of seismic data have been acquired in the Chad Basin in spite of the security situation in Borno State. Yakubu said revamping of the Corporation’s critical downstream facilities such as the refineries, depots, pipelines and jetties have remained the focus of the management stressing that these spirited efforts would ensure seamless supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide. He implored the graduands to deploy their expertise to enhance the efficiency of the Corporation stressing that integrity, accountability and transparency must be their watch word.
In his welcome address, Dan Efebo, group executive director, corporate services, NNPC, reiterated the determination of the corporation to the training and retraining of the workforce because, according to him, the members of staff remain the cornerstone of any business concern.
The chief officers’ management development programme was established 24 years ago by the group learning department of the NNPC and has recorded a total of 3,521 participants so far. The programme is designed to impart managerial skills to members of staff who are promoted from senior staff cadre to management cadre.
Meanwhile, the management of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, has expressed commitment to support federal government’s efforts to get more Nigerians to switch to cooking gas by making the product available for consumption. Babs Omotowa, managing director, NLNG, said “the company is more determined to ameliorate the difficulties Nigerians are facing in accessing cooking gas.”
He said the use of cooking gas would place Nigerians at better advantages than the continued use of fire wood and kerosene, that have environmental and health disadvantages for citizens. “In addition to ameliorating the difficulties Nigerians are having with LPG, the NLNG commenced LPG distribution to the domestic market in 2007, and by that singular intervention brought down the price of cooking gas from N7,000 to N3,500 per 12.5 kg cylinder. We currently supply over 80 percent of cooking gas, LPG, in Nigeria, and are increasing the volume to 250,000 metric tonnes per annum, MTA, representing 67 percent increase. NLNG’s business has strong impact on key microeconomic variables and our contribution to the Goss Domestic Product, GDP, rose to four percent in 2008,” he said.
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