By John Ikani
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Engr. Simbi Wabote has asserted that women are best positioned to drive Nigerian Government’s quest to promote Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) acceptability.
Engr. Wabote made the assertion on Tuesday while delivering his keynote address at the Nigerian Women In Oil and Gas Conference 2022 organised by the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF) Diversity Sectoral Working Group (DSWG) in the Convention Centre, Eko Hotel, Lagos State.
The NCDMB boss said the theme of this year conference – ‘Leveraging Opportunities For Women In Oil And Gas Industry’ – was very appropriate as it is coming at time the nation is repositioning the industry for greater in-country value addition, efficiency, transparency and investments.
According to him, women have a vital role to play in the Decade of Gas Program launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2021 to leverage on the nation’s huge gas reserve with a view to enabling the nation become not just a major gas exporter but a major gas consuming nation.
He explained that: “One of the initiatives put in place by the honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources in line with the decade of gas declaration is the National Gas Expansion Program with three key elements namely – the domestic LPG expansion, autogas and power generation.
“The domestic LPG expansion and autogas elements of the programme require four intervention focus areas namely – availability, affordability, accessibility and acceptability.
“While the ministry of Petroleum Resources and its agencies have been working on various programmes, to make LPG products available, accessible, and affordable, I submit that our women are best placed to be at the forefront of LPG acceptability.
“I see a huge role for our women to eliminate hindrances to adoption resulting from dangerous perception of LPG cooking gas.”
The local content chieftain went on to briefly highlight some of the touch points in the LPG value chain covering inland LPG production, LPG jetties/terminals, storage facilities, inland transportation, cylinder manufacturing, bottling and retail.
He said the Board had gone into partnership with some investors to develop some projects. Some of them include partnership with NEDO gas processing company in Kwale Delta State for the establishment of 80MMscfd of gas processing plant and 30MMscfd of gas gathering hub.
Others are the Board’s partnership with RunGas for the production of 1.2 million LPG cylinders per annum in Bayelsa State and Lagos State, as well as the partnership with Brass fertiliser for the development of 10,000MT per day methanol plant at Odiama.
Engr. Wabote further revealed that the board was in partnership with Butane Energy to roll out LPG bottling plant and depots in Abuja and 10 Northern states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Niger, Plateau, Gombe and Jigawa states.
He also mentioned the Board’s partnership with Southfield Petroleum for the establishment of 200 MMscfd gas processing plant in Delta State to produce 123,000MT per annum of LPG
Some other investments include the partnership with MOB Integrated Services for the construction of the 500MT Inland LPG terminal which is currently in operation at Dikko, Niger State as well as the partnership with Amal Technologies to set up a plant in Abuja to produce Smart Gas/Smoke Detector Alarm devices thereby enhancing the safteybof LPG usage in our home.
Present at the conference were the Honorable Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Chairman of The Board of Directors of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, Chairperson of the NCCF Diversity SWG, Alero Onosode among others.
