The rapidly changing Investment Climate in Nigeria’s LPG Industry

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• Author: Muyiwa Ige(LPG Stakeholder and Consultant)

Available statistics from impeccable sources and the visible evidence all over the country, clearly reveal that Nigeria’s LPG industry which was in a state of ‘coma’ prior to 2007, has fully recovered from its ‘coronavirus’ and is now bubbling with life and in a good state of health.

Precisely from 2016 to the present time, the country’s LPG industry has witnessed a flurry of unprecedented investments in LPG retail outlets, LPG Skid Plants, Standard Cooking Gas Plants, LPG Depots, LPG Bobtails/Bridgers, Ocean-going LPG Vessels and other critical LPG infrastructure.

If one must not be economical with the truth, the LPG industry in Nigeria is increasingly getting saturated.

The estimated time for the industry to reach a saturation point of about 95% is projected to be between 2-5 years. Therefore, the wise investor still has some time to make some calculated investment moves in the country’s LPG industry before this period elapses.

LPG Retail Outlet Business

It is now commonplace to see 50kg cylinders used for the transfer/sale of gas at LPG retail outlets on most streets in all the cities of Nigeria. But the truth is there are still some streets with a high population density that do not have any LPG retail outlet.

A wise investor can seize the opportunity to secure suitable and safe locations on such streets to set up LPG retail outlets.

The wise investor will definitely capture a good percentage of LPG users on the street, who will prefer to refill their cylinders near their homes and avoid the stress/cost of going long distances for the refill of their cylinders.

There are also existing opportunities in some villages with a decent population density that have no LPG retail outlet yet. With good and proper orientation by the LPG retail outlets situated in these villages, several households will readily switch to LPG(Cooking Gas). 

LPG Skid Plants

Some residential estates and neighborhoods with moderate/high population densities have no or a limited number of LPG retails outlets that cannot adequately serve them.

A wonderful opportunity presents itself to a wise investor in such estates/neighborhoods for the establishment of an LPG Skid Plant (2.5 Ton- 10 Ton) to serve the LPG users there.

A sizeable percentage of LPG users that have a preference to refill their cylinders at LPG Plants will automatically be won over, while some other patrons of LPG retail outlets will also patronize the skid plant.

The smaller space requirement for an LPG Skid Plant makes it a cheaper and better option to a standard Gas Plant in such estates and neighborhoods.

Standard LPG Plants

Some cities, towns and large local government areas in Nigeria that require at least five standard Gas Plants, have just two or three.

This means LPG users and retailers (that buy in bulk from these standard Gas Plants) have to travel long distances and undergo some stress to access these plants. The establishment of Standard LPG Plants in these areas will make a lot of investment sense because there will be a guarantee of patronage from hordes of LPG users and cooking gas retail outlet users.

Additionally, some areas that have clusters of residential estates are only served by LPG retail outlets and LPG Skid Plants. Setting up a Standard Gas Plant in such an area is undoubtedly a wise investment decision. This is because the Standard LPG plant will offer substantially lower prices of cooking gas to home, commercial and industrial users.

The lower prices offered by the Standard Gas Plant, which LPG Retail outlets and Skid Plants can never match, will make hordes of home, industrial and commercial users of  LPG to troop to the standard Gas Plant to refill their gas cylinders.

LPG Bobtails

The number of LPG Bobtails in the country is still inadequate to serve the industry.

What makes this very obvious is that some LPG Skid Plants, restaurants, hospitals, breweries and other industrial users that possess LPG tanks with capacities ranging from 1 Metric Ton to 10 Metric Tons, wait for a week or more to receive their supply of LPG, after making their order.

Investing in LPG Bobtails remains a wise investment decision because no embargo has been placed on the establishment of LPG Skid Plants, restaurants, big hotels, etc, that use LPG storage tanks.

LPG Bridgers(20-25 Metric Ton capacity LPG Truck)

Although some Standard Gas Plants have their own LPG Bridgers, those with high turnover still need to rent Bridgers to bring in the product from LPG depots.

For instance, a standard LPG Plant that sells at least 20 Tons of gas in a day and has only two 20 Ton LPG bridgers in its fleet, will definitely need to rent LPG Bridgers from time to time, in order not to run out of stock on a constant basis.

Delays in loading the product at the depot, stock-out at the depots, truck break-downs and long duration of the round-trip from the plant’s location to the LPG Depot, are some of the major reasons for the inevitability of the constant rentage of LPG Bridger by the Standard Gas Plant.

LPG Depots and Ocean-going LPG Vessels

Comprehensive feasibility studies will be required before an investment decision can be made on the establishment of an LPG Depot or the purchase of an LPG Ocean-going Vessel.

Residential Estate or City LPG Piping Network

Similarly, this also requires some feasibility studies.

Inter and Intra State LPG Piping Network

Detailed feasibility studies must be undertaken before any investment decision can be made on a massive project like this one.