NCDMB, Firm to Build LPG Bottling Plants, Depots in Eight Northern States
Peter Uzoho
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has announced plan to partner with Butane Energy Limited to invest in the building of Liquefied Petroleum Gas LPG) bottling plants and depots in eight northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The states include Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Zamfara, Jigawa, Gombe, Plateau, Niger and Nasarawa.
The General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, NCDMB, Mr. Ginah O. Ginah, disclosed this in Lagos, at the 2021 NCDMB workshop for media stakeholders, with the theme, “Sustaining Nigerian Content amidst Shifting Energy Landscape: The Role of the Media.”
This is coming after the successful inauguration of 100 metric tonnes capacity LPG storage and bottling plant in Katsina State two weeks ago, built by Butane Energy in partnership with NCDMB.
Ginah said the facilities would help to address supply constraints in the domestic LPG market in the northern part of Nigeria through its plant operation and bulk storage, transportation, distribution and cylinder filling and bulk retail services.
He said the board had made several interventions in the gas value chain as part of its effort to operationalise the decade of gas declaration of the federal government and as part of Nigeria’s approach to use gas as transition fuel in the energy transition question.
According to Ginah, the interventions spanned the development of LPG storage terminals and jetties, inland gas processing plants to produce LPG and propane, infrastructure for gas gathering and injection into gas pipeline networks, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facilities, and manufacturing of composite LPG cylinders.
“Two weeks ago, the NCDMB commissioned Butane Energy Limited’s 100 metric tonnes LPG storage and bottling plant in Katsina State, which will help to address supply constraints in the domestic LPG market in the northern part of Nigeria through its plant operation and bulk storage, transportation, distribution and cylinder filling and bulk retail services.
“Other planned investments with the company in LPG storage and bottling plants will come up in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi States while six depots will be in Zamfara, Jigawa, Gombe, Plateau, Niger and Nasarawa States,” he said.
He added that another strategy adopted by the board towards energy transition was research and development (R&D).
Ginah stated that NCDMB had consistently made a point that Nigeria needed to build up its local R&D capabilities in the oil and gas industry and to come up with innovative solutions to drive its own energy transition to avoid being at the mercy of the developed world.
In his presentation entitled, “R&D as Pathway for Deepening Nigerian Content Development,” the General Manager, Research, Statistics and Development, NCDMB, Mr. Abdulmalik Halilu, said one of the positive results of the board’s R&D programmes was the smart gas leak detector created by Amal Technology, an indigenous energy technology startup.
The factory would be producing hardware, embedded systems, and other technological devices in Nigeria, the first fully commercially printed circuit board manufacturer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Halilu said the Amal smart gas leak detector factory being sited in Abuja, was valued at N7 billion per annum, based on an independent financial analysis.
He, however, explained that the board decided to invest in the project to accelerate it with the intention of taking back its fund at maturity, adding that the project has the potential to employ 100 Nigerians.
