The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)  has said that the era of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) importation into the country will soon be a thing of the past when the 100 million standard cubic feet of gas capacity facility at Oredo flow station in Benin City, Edo State, is commissioned.

The Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) project built by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is expected to be commissioned on October 31, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari, and this was made known by the group managing director of the nation oil company Mele Kyari.

According to Mr Kyari during the gas plant facility recently, he state the plant has an estimated product streams of 330 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, 345 tons of industrial-grade propane, and 2,600 barrels daily of condensate.

The Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) project in completion will deliver 260,000 metric tons of LPG representing 40 percent of Nigeria domestic gas requirement and this will significantly cut the product importation in the country.

“Completing this project is a monumental feat for this country and we know that there are other efforts that are going on and we are supporting all of them. But ultimately what is important is that this country will be sufficient in LPG within a short period of time.

 “The contribution of that gas from NPDC is at least 500million standard cubic feet of gas. So NPDC is a critical stakeholder in the supply of gas into the domestic market”, he said.

He further commended the management of the NPDC for their commitment towards speedy and timely completion of the project at schedule respective of numerous challenges accosted in course of the project. The group head also showered encomiums to NPDC whose daily crude oil production has doubled of recent from 260, 000 barrels per day as against 136,000 barrels in 2019.

“This is possible within two years, we have lined up of projects and activities. Today we have the highest number of rings running in this country. Five rings running at the same time adding incremental value, delivering major projects which will ultimately take to producing that 500,000 barrels per day target.

“NPDC is a company 100 percent owned by Nigeria and we are delivering it to be the number one upstream company in this country”, Kyari boasted.

“With the support and alignment of all the stakeholders particularly the support we are getting from our president Muhammadu Buhari for us to deliver this company as the number one upstream company, we are going to ensure that gas will now be delivered without interruption into the domestic market, supply of crude oil to the international market by our own company by our own control will be justified.

“Today, the largest contributor gas to the domestic market is NPDC to the power sector. This a National responsibility and a commercial venture with a national outlook”, he added.

The managing director of NPDC, Mansur Sambo in his address said that the company is the current largest contributor of gas to the domestic market and power sector in the country and that  the contract for the construction of the Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) awarded in 2015 but was delayed till 2017 due to budgetary constraints.