Players in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) market are anxiously awaiting reforms in the subsector following plans by the Standards organisation of Nigeria to sanise the market.
They are optimistic that the move, if objectively implemented, would bring desired changes in the business and encourage more Nigerians to use LPG, instead of kerosene, firewood, charcoal, and other fuels.
The Managing Director, Nipco Plc, Mr. Venkataraman Venkatapathy, said the need for a policy paper on domestic LPG usage by the Federal Government and a strategy to develop the policy was long overdue.
He stressed the need for the introduction of viable policies would ensure a booming LPG market in the country.
Venkatapathy said that more work needed to be done to provide veritable platforms for a sustained campaign on the economic and environmental benefits of LPG against the backdrop of the abundant gas resources in the country.
Techno Oil Limited, a player in the market, also described as unimpressive the current level of usage of LPG in Nigeria.
The firm lamented the low consumption level of cooking gas by Nigerians, pointing out that the current usage stood at 0.5kg per capita, compared to 3kg per capita in Ghana; 1.9kg in Cameroon; 5.5kg in South Africa; and 44.4kg in Morocco.
According to the Managing Director, Techno Oil, Mr. Tony Onyeama, the firm on its part, had manufactured gas stoves to drive the ‘Going Green Revolution’ it initiated to promote cleaner environment.
The use of standard LPG accessories targeted at promoting safety, is currently dominating discussions among stakeholders in the subsector following recent plans by the SON to review composition of the gas in Nigeria.
Some stakeholders, our correspondent learnt, had advocated the standardisation of equipment used in the business, especially the cylinders, as most of the cylinders used in the country were reportedly over 30 years of age.
The old cylinders, they argued, posed huge environmental threat to the society as they were still in circulation.
Also, analysts decried the call to review the component of LPG to contain more butane (less pressured gas) than propane (high pressured gas) in some quarters.
They said it was not the solution to the challenges bedeviling the subsector, considering the dearth of equipment used across the country by players.
Our correspondent, however, learnt, that retaining the current level of propane in the LPG consumed locally presented a huge threat to old cylinders, as the high pressure might result in the rupture or cracking of the cylinders over time.
It is also being argued that the solution to the problem does not lie with altering the proportion of propane or butane in the substance, but in the phasing out of old cylinders, which are also life-threatening.
But SON, in a statement, had said that LPG was set to come under a closer focus of the regulatory agency, following demands by operators for a review of requisite standards in operation in the sector.
The DG, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, was quoted in the statement as saying that the agency would be intensifying its sanitisation efforts across the industrial sector in a bid to achieve its set targets.
LPG is a product of popular use in the country with high volatility when compromised. And this has influenced calls on SON to focus its attention on the subsector.
The SON intervention would come in the form of a review of standards for LPG, given that there are variants of LPG products in the Nigerian market with allegations and counter allegations of the imported brands having high bromine content.