The Federal Government plans to inject 10 million gas cylinders in the next one year, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday.
They are to be injected through certified marketers in 12 pilot states.
Prof Osinbajo dropped the hint in Asaba, Delta State, at a two-day Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) sensitisation under the theme: “Stimulating Delta state’s socio-economic growth through LPG adoption and expansion.”
The programme was organised by the National LPG Expansion Implementation Plan (NLEIP) under the Office of the Vice President, in collaboration with Delta State government, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said.
Represented by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on LPG and National Programme Manager on NLEIP, Mr Dayo Adeshina, the vice president stated that two states had been selected from each geopolitical zone for the pilot programme.
He said that the Federal Government was committed to ensuring an end to gas-flaring and had signed the climate change bill, to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the country.
Osinbajo noted that the country had proven gas reserves of 260 trillion cubits feet (tcf) and unproven reserve of 600tcf, adding that all that would remain statistics if stakeholders failed to take proactive measures on exploiting the resource.
According to him, this sensitisation has come at a very crucial time, because Delta state plays a significant role in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
He said: “Nigeria is gas rich as well as oil, unfortunately the concentration has been on oil, when we have 260tcf of proven gas reserve and 600tcf unproven gas reserves, all those figures will remain statistics unless we do something about it.
“This programme is crucial because of the several advantages attached to usage of gas: the same cooking gas can be used to power vehicles, the power sector can also take advantage of the same LPG.
