Nigeria imports 63% of cooking gas supplied nationwide in March 2021 ― PPPRA

Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)  in its Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumption data for March 2021 revealed that despite the abundant natural gas in the country, 63.25 per cent of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, supplied in the Nigerian market in March 2021 was imported.

According to latest data PPPRA, this represented 77,840.600 metric tonnes of LPG in a vacuum (MT VAC), imported into the country in the month under review.

PPPRA stated that a total of 123,076.332 MT VAC of LPG was supplied in the country in March 2021, rising by 32.71 per cent compared to 92,741.684 MT VAC of LPG supplied in February 2021; and 71.77 per cent higher than the 71,650.457 MT VAC supplied in March 2020.

The downstream petroleum industry regulator report added that the volume of cooking gas imported in March 2021, was 76.19 per cent higher than the 44,179.668 MT VAC of cooking gas import in February 2021, and 97.47 per cent higher than the 39,419.820 MT VAC of the commodity imported in March 2020.

The report further disclosed that the cooking gas imported into the country was sourced from the United States of America, Argentina and Equatorial Guinea.

The report on the other hand stated that 45,235.732 MT VAC of cooking gas was sourced locally in March 2021, representing 36.75 per cent of total gas supplied in the month under review.

The volume of LPG sourced locally in the month under review, was 6.85 per cent lower than the 48,562.016 MT VAC of LPG sourced locally in February 2021, and 40.35 per cent higher than the 32,230.637 MT VAC gotten from the same source in March 2020.

According to the report, the companies in the supply of LPG in the Nigerian market in March 2021 were Algasco LPG Services Limited, a subsidiary of Vitol; NIPCO, Prudent Energy and Services Limited, Rainoil, Matrix Energy, Techno Oil, Stockgap Fuels Limited, Greenville Natural Gas Limited and PNG Gas Limited.

The report noted that in the import category,  Algasco shipped in 10,068.062 MT, 22,300.116 MT and 9,771.505 MT of LPG from the US in three tranches, between March 1 and March 28, 2021; NIPCO imported 6,090.145 MT of LPG from Argentina, while Prudent imported 5,695.186 MT and 5,699.460 MT of the commodity, from Argentina and the USA respectively.

Rainoil and Matrix imported 6,200.129 MT and 6,508.677 MT of LPG, respectively, from Equatorial Guinea; while Techno Oil imported 5,507.320 MT of cooking gas from Argentina in the month under review.

The PPPRA report stated that in the locally-sourced category, that NIPCO sourced 10,780.064 MT and 13,168.223 MT of LPG from the Bonny River Terminal (BRT) and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Bonny, respectively; while Algasco and Stockgap purchased 13,151.310 MT and 8,136.135 MT of LPG, respectively, from NLNG, Bonny.

However, Greenville and PNG Gas, who are mainly offtakers, received 197.910 MT and 1,460.270 MT respectively.