Senate President Ahmad Lawan on Wednesday told the management of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas to make Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas readily available for domestic use.
Lawan spoke when the Managing Director of the NLNG, Tony Attah and his management team visited him in Abuja, according to a statement by Ola Awoniyi, special adviser (media) to the Senate President.
He urged the NLNG chief to ensure improved supply of cooking gas in the country.
Lawan said: “The LPG you bring to the country, you should bring more because if we have to move away from using the firewood and so many other things that can cause problems to the environment, we have to have more LPG for cooking.
“I believe that you have the wherewithal. If it requires a policy or legislation, I believe there is need to fast track our ability to make the LPG available to Nigerians.
“Today what is available to Nigerians is very low. I believe that we can do much better than that.”
The Senate President described the NLNG as a project that is so important and critical to Nigeria.
He said even though the project is doing well, it can still do much better, adding that “Nigeria can benefit better from gas resource than even from oil.”
Lawan told the NLNG team to work closely with the relevant committees in the National Assembly with a view to fast tracking the realization of the objectives of the project.
The Senate President underscored the fact that Nigeria is reputed to be more of a gas nation than oil adding that “we have what it takes to be very ambitious” like other leading gas-endowed nations.
Lawan said there is also a need to ensure stability in the Niger Delta to sustain an uninterrupted operation in the region.
“We believe that we should work to ensure stability in the Niger Delta. A lot of projections for our budget every year are based on crude availability. That requires that we should continue to have a stable Niger Delta environment where our oil and gas are produced.
“We should make every possible effort to provide amenities either through corporate responsibility and of course through government intervention to make that place stable so that we can continue to have the operations going on uninterrupted,” Lawan said.
Earlier, Attah said the visit was to intimate the Senate President with the progress made by the company.
He said that the NLNG is seen as the fasted growing NLNG Company in the world.
“We are a global player but we are 100 percent Nigerian company and a major source of pride to the nation.
“This year defines our 30th anniversary of safely operating and when we talk to our customers, they refer to us as reliable, responsible but most importantly trusted.
“And we think that is really helping the image of our Nigeria because our ships go all over the world on a daily basis and we carry the flag to represent the country positively,” Attah said.