By Adewale Sanyaolu
The plan by the Federal Government to deepen cooking gas penetration through its decade of gas policy is beginning to yield results as Hyde Energy has disclosed that it distributed one million kilogramme of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas in 2022.
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Hyde Energy Limited, a global petroleum trading company with deep downstream network in Nigeria, Mr. Oladimeji Edwards, made this known during an interaction with the media in Lagos at the weekend.
Edwards said the decade of gas initiative by the Federal Government has further helped to spur up investments in the LPG value chain.
Giving the steady growth figures, Edwards said as at the end of 2020, the company distributed 200,000 kilogramme of gas and by 2021 when the decade of gas was declared, it grew its distribution to 600,000 kilogrammes and by 2022, it had sold its first one million kilogramme of gas.
He added that the LPG market in Nigeria is probably one of the youngest in the Africa continent but has one of the highest growth potentials in the country.
The Hyde Energy boss said the two prolonged problems in the North, especially the North East; which are aggressive deforestation due to climate change and insurgency which has made firewood very difficult to get and if gotten, it’s very expensive and that created the opportunity for the LPG market in Nigeria.
He disclosed that when activities in the LPG market in Nigeria are compared to what obtains in Morocco, one would clearly see that there are huge potentials for the cooking gas market in Nigeria because Morocco with a population of 38 million people consumes 5.5 million tones of LPG annually, Nigeria with 200 million people and growing consumes between 1.5 and 1.8 million tones annually.
On other investments, Olademeji said in the next six months, Hyde Energy would be performing a relaunch of its Luminor brand and other products.
“The Hyde Luminor brand is a fantastic brand and has infiltrated the hearts of a few Nigerians. We launched that particular lubricant in 2017, and in our first year, we sold 5,000 litres in a quarter; today we are doing almost 3,000 litres in a month which is not a lot compared to other companies.
“But in the next six months, we are performing a relaunch of our products. We are going to launch new labels, new bottles, and a new winning strategy coming into Lagos.
“We have not really been popular in Lagos; we have mostly been operating in the South East, Abuja, East and Calabar which is where we get most of our volumes, but you will be hearing more and more of the Hyde Luminor brand going forward in weeks and months ahead.
“We will enter into partnership with key people that would help us penetrate the market, and work with stockiest, so they can enjoy and know about us,” he said.