The executive director, Rainoil Limited, Mr Emmanuel Omuojine, has said that optimal utilisation of gas is key to achieving energy security and equity in Africa.
Speaking at the recently-concluded Africa Refiners and Distributors Association Conference, ARDA Week 2023, held in Cape Town, South Africa, Omuojine, in his paper titled: “The Critical Role of Liquified Petroleum Gas in Africa Energy Transition,” said despite the growth in renewable energy projects, oil and gas will remain a significant part of Africa’s energy mix, with gas accounting for at least 25 per cent of this by 2050.
He said Africa has over 620 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves which will be critical to its energy security. Referencing the impact of Russia – Ukraine war on the global energy sector, Omuojine said international oil companies such as BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies raked in a combined record profits of over $199.3 billion in 2022. Unsurprisingly they have soft-pedalled on their aggressive plans to slash oil and gas production by 2030.
He stated that for Nigeria to harness the benefits of its energy transition is to fully implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) especially as it relates to the optimal utilisation of the country’s vast gas reserves.
Focusing on the LPG sector, Omuojine stated that while Nigeria had significantly improved its annual per capita consumption of LPG from 1.8 kg in 2015 to at least 5 kg currently, it still imports well over 60 per cent of its LPG demand. He added that this was an anomaly since Nigeria has the most proven gas reserves in Africa, at over 209 trillion cubic feet. Nigeria’s domestic demand for LPG increased from just over 400,000 MT in 2016 to over 1.3 million MT in 2022.
Omuojine also mentioned familiar obstacles to the growth of LPG sector in Nigeria, these include persistent gas flaring, inadequate gas processing facilities, poor transportation infrastructure, and sub-optimal vessel berthing facilities. He highlighted the impact of inadequate funding to LPG projects especially in the recent shift in global funding from fossil fuel to renewable projects, adding that the regulatory and policy frameworks also need to be effectively implemented to provide investment incentives and reduce approval bottlenecks experienced in project execution.
Rainoil Limited, he said, is fully vested in the development of LPG in Nigeria. Over the last four years Rainoil has invested more than N10 billion in LPG bulk storage, trucks, filling plants and retail skids. Rainoil, he assured is committed to investment in gas which they view as critical to addressing the energy transition objectives of reliability, affordability and sustainability.
He also lauded the federal government’s efforts to boost gas market growth in Nigeria. Efforts such as the proposed 614 km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project, the ongoing Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme of the Upstream Commission and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board’s collaborative efforts with the private sector in boosting gas processing and LPG composite cylinder production.
