Techno Oil Limited, a leading integrated energy company with interests in oil and gas, energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, has established Nigeria’s first fully indigenous automated Liquefied Petroleum Gas cylinder manufacturing plant.
The plant which is situated in Kajola, Ajah Lagos State, has the capacity to produce more than five million LPG per year.
Backstory: Recall that Nairametrics recently reported that the Federal Government, in pursuit of a new reform that forbids ownership of LPG cylinders, had partnered with some manufacturers to give 600,000 cylinders to distributors on credit, to be repaid in 18 months.
Why this matters: The project, reputed to be the largest of its kind in West Africa, aims to end cylinder importation into Nigeria. Quite a number of the cylinders currently in circulation in the country are said to be either substandard, expired. As such, they may pose severe risks to consumers.
Apart from its ability to meet local demands, the company disclosed during the commissioning of the plant on Friday by the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, that it could export cylinders to other West African countries.
The LPG cylinders vary in sizes, which include 3kg, 6kg, 12.5kg and 50kg.
Speaking during the commissioning, Nigeria’s Vice President said the following;
“Techno Oil’s investment auspiciously converges with our administration’s efforts to speedily diversify our economy, especially through domestic and indigenous solutions.
“When we came into office in 2015, one of the issues we identified was the abysmally low domestic utilisation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in Nigeria – a nine percent penetration rate nationwide, despite Nigeria’s domestic LPG production of three million metric tonnes per annum.”
It is worthy of note that the project had been inspired by the need to deepen LPG penetration in Nigerian homes by providing a healthier, safer, cleaner and more affordable alternative to heavy reliance on firewood and kerosene.
What Nigerians stand to gain: Mr Osinbajo further mentioned that the Buhari administration planned to create about two million jobs in the LPG subsector while creating investment opportunities for people to explore.
Nkechi Obi, the Executive Vice-Chairman of Techno Oil, lamented the dearth of cooking gas cylinders in Nigeria, putting the figure at just two million. She reiterated her firm’s resolve to tackle this predicament by producing a million high-quality cylinders in four months and break the barrier of acquiring cylinders at high costs.