From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, commissioned the Integrated Gas Handling Facility and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Processing and Dispensing Plants in Oredo, Edo State, declaring that Nigeria has moved a step closer to the nation’s dream of full utilisation of the nation’s abundant gas potentialities.
The plants are built and operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Upstream Subsidiary in Oredo, Edo State.
According to a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari said: “The Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility and its associated NGLs depot will be delivering 240,000 metric tons of commercial grade LPG and Propane. It will also deliver about 205 million standard cubic feet per day of lean gas to the domestic market.
“In addition to its import substitution benefits that brings us a step closer to self-sufficiency in LPG production and also supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises in the host communities, this project will create hundreds of direct and indirect employment opportunities for our youths (both skilled and unskilled).
“Apart from being the largest onshore LPG plant in Nigeria with the potential of supplying about 20 percent of Nigeria’s LPG demand, the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility was carefully situated at a corridor proximate to over 80 percent of Nigeria’s LPG demand source.”
The president remarked that the project was a follow-up to the commitment of the administration towards making 2020 as Nigeria’s Year of the Gas:
“At the turn of 2020, this administration made solemn declarations to Nigerians over its plans to expand the gas sector footprints by scaling-up the development and utilisation of Nigeria’s abundant Natural Gas Resources to spur industrialisation, provide clean and efficient energy for transportation and household use while increasing our exports into the international market. It is on the backdrop of this commitment that 2020 was dedicated and embodied as Nigeria’s Year of Gas.
“We are exiting 2020 with yet another milestone of commissioning the Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility LPG processing and dispensing plants which will also support the on-going drive towards providing alternative auto fuel under the National Gas Expansion Programme initiative,” he said.