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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Lagos State
Government has lauded Techno Oil Limited for building a landmark 8,400-ton
capacity LPG coastal terminal at Kirikiri in Apapa, Lagos, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The
Governor of the state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu gave the commendation in Lagos in
a message read on his behalf at the commissioning of the LPG terminal by the
state’s commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Olalere Odusote. The
governor said that Techno Oil had demonstrated an uncommon resolve to contribute
to the emancipation of Lagos State.
He recalled the building of an LPG
cylinder manufacturing plant in the state last year, describing the gas sector
as a key component of his administration’s quest to make Lagos a 21st Century
economy. The governor said that he strongly believed that pivoting Lagos State
to a gas-powered economy would offer an array of economic and environmental
benefits to its residents.
"Developments such as this will help to
promote and deepen domestic LPG utilization across the state, thereby reducing
the state’s carbon footprint and ultimately benefiting the people of Lagos State
and Nigeria as a whole. "As the major economic, commercial and financial nerve-
center of the federation as well as the fifth largest economy in Africa, Lagos
State is a major hub for the downstream sector of the oil & gas
industry."
"We are hosts to strategically located petroleum product
storage facilities and primed for the growth in gas usage. “Lagos is by far the
largest consumer of petroleum and gas products in Nigeria.
"Indeed, in
establishing this 8,400-ton capacity LPG Coastal Storage Terminal in Lagos,
Techno Oil has made a strategic investment. "It is a significant step that will
accelerate and deepen the growth of LPG to help diversify the economy, grow
revenue and create jobs," he said.
The governor charged Techno Oil and
other downstream players to work closely with Lagos State in ensuring safety and
promoting best practices in the sector. "We must be jointly responsible for the
protection of lives and property by ensuring a strict adherence to policy and
regulatory measures that promote safety. Safety must be in the DNA of all
practitioners in the gas industry.
"We have the paramount duty of
institutionalizing a culture of safety and professionalism in the industry and
my administration is committed to an all-inclusive and participatory effort that
will accelerate growth in the sector,’’ he said.
In a message, the
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva said that Nigeria
had earmarked the year 2020 to be the beginning of the decade of gas. According
to him, this is a period in which the national economy is programmed for
expansion using the abundant natural gas resources of the country.
Sylva
whose message was read by a deputy director at the Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR), Dr. Musa Zaki, said that central to the aspiration was the
deepening of LPG penetration in the country. He noted that the deepening of
cooking gas would reach a point when both domestic and commercial food cooking
would be fueled by LPG.
The minister said that having built an LPG
cylinder manufacturing plant, producing five million cylinders per annum and
inaugurating the 8,400MT automated terminal, Techno Oil was on course to
providing end-to-end solutions in the domestic LPG industry.
"The
commissioning of this facility is definitely a good contribution to the two
aspirations cited above in addition to environmental protection, job and wealth
creation by reducing deforestation and greenhouse emissions and promoting
domestic gas value-chain development.
"With the inauguration of this
facility, there are now 12 LPG depots in the country and we are gradually
marching to our expected destination in LPG adoption. "It should be noted,
however, that the Nigerian LPG market is still not saturated. There are huge
opportunities for further investments in the entire domestic gas
value-chain.
"These include gas processing, transportation and
distribution, storage, retailing, manufacturing of equipment and provision of
services,” he said. In a speech, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive
Officer of Techno Oil, Mrs Nkechi Obi, said that the terminal would generate up
to 2,000 jobs in the months ahead. Obi pleaded with the federal government to
come to the rescue of Nigerian industrialists in their bid to contribute to the
economic growth of the nation.
"We plead with government to provide
funding to industrialists in building key facilities such as the one being
commissioned. "Government should consider reactivating its butanization plants
and also building new ones across the country to guarantee LPG availability
nationwide.
"Similarly, it is also time for government to embark on media
campaign to sensitize the populace on the benefits of LPG over other cooking
fuels. "More so, government agencies and regulatory bodies should enforce the
rules to sanitize the space for a safe and profitable business
environment.
"We remain thankful to the Lagos State government for being
a worthy host by providing the much appreciated conducive environment for our
business to thrive. "This is yet another of our numerous projects being hosted
in Lagos. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
The chairman of the
board of Techno Oil, prof. Anya O. Anya, lauded the staff and management of
Techno Oil for embarking on the project. He said that young people in the
country were increasingly demonstrating their abilities to make thing happen in
every field of human endeavor.
As MRC informed
previously, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's
latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world
economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner
fuels.
Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could
cut global oil
demand growth by 40 per cent in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and
Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.
And in September 2019,
six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the
creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam
crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels.
The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP,
LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also
significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in
R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning
their base chemical production to renewable electricity.
Ethylene and
propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer. |
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