A supply crunch triggered by the Iran war has tested the resilience of emerging Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) markets across sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria suffering the sharpest disruption as import constraints and lower domestic production pushed demand down by almost 23 per cent.
This was disclosed in a latest report by energy intelligence provider Argus, which said African LPG markets had largely withstood the price volatility and global supply tightness caused by the conflict, although the disruption exposed vulnerabilities in some of the region’s nascent markets.
Nigeria, the region’s largest LPG consumer, recorded the most severe impact, with demand falling to a seven-month low of 123,000 tonnes in June, according to data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The decline represented an almost 23 per cent drop from the March level. Argus reported that domestic production also fell by more than 20 per cent during the period, following lower output from inland gas processing plants and maintenance at the Dangote refinery’s 218,000 barrels-per-day residual fluid catalytic cracker.