One Reason LPG Won’t Scale in Nigeria

Some days ago, during a conversation over dinner with a friend in the kitchen, she asked “how often do you think about a fire explosion?”, my response — “every time I cook”.

I was also a resident in the private estate directly opposite the LPG depot in Lagos where a gas explosion in 2018 allegedly killed at least two people. I remember — minutes before the explosion — perceiving gas and shortly after getting a notification from the estate’s Whatsapp group alerting residents to not ignite any fire as there was a possible leakage at the depot; from the responses that ensued, everyone on that axis of the estate could smell the gas permeating their homes. The story I have (and that I mostly remember) of how the explosion happened is that a vehicle owner hastily tried to navigate the traffic along the depot’s route, apparently caused by the depot staff who were diverting oncoming vehicles away from the depot when they noticed a leakage. This vehicle owner allegedly sped past the depot, his screeching tyres caused a spark which resulted in the explosion. I heard this story from my driver, who heard it from the security guard who heard from another security guard. I don’t recall reading the actual story from the estate group and although what was published in the news tells a different version of the story with some elements corroborating my driver’s story, I can easily recall my driver’s version because it’s more dramatic and feels like an action movie with a horrific twist.

Gas explosion stories are more sensationalised in the media, combine that with hearsay from friends and family and a lack of awareness from trusted sources on LPG safety; what you end up with is a massive pile of misinformation leading to huge trust deficit and unshifting behaviours. It’s why, despite my knowledge on LPG safety, I still entertain the possibility of a gas explosion for as many times I cook or I’m close to an active burner.

Under the hood.

The lack of awareness is a fairly talked about challenge with scaling LPG adoption in Nigeria and this can’t be overemphasised; the fears surrounding the use of LPG — real or perceived — due to lack of awareness, will continue to hinder its adoption.

However, beneath the awareness gap lies another problem — a poor feedback mechanism with its use.

Take petrol for example, despite the many stories we hear of petrol tanker explosions, petrol remains a vital commodity for Nigerians in urban and suburban areas. A lot of its consumption is driven by necessity e.g. you need fuel for your generator to cope with a weak grid connection, you need fuel for your car to move around etc; however, its usage is also influenced by your confidence level on how much you know about it e.g. you can see petrol spill and choose to run as far away from it, some people can tell if petrol is adulterated by its colour, and petrol also has a strong smell. With gas - and in this case, LPG - you are largely only leaning on your sense of smell (which is weakened for a lot of people due to allergies) to detect a leakage, you likely don’t know how to identify good or adulterated LPG, you also don’t know how to identify good cylinders.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

Establish standards and create systems for consumers to identify them
Beyond guidelines for LPG licensees, consumers need nudges to improve their confidence with LPG usage; some of my thoughts around this include:

• Bold label on cylinders approved for use with an expiry date. This can also be digitised with a USSD tool where cylinder owners enter a barcode on the cylinder to retrieve information about the cylinder e.g. when it was manufactured, when it expires etc. Users can also opt-in to get notified when the cylinder expires.
• Pre-install gas sensors on cylinders
• Signages at depots and filling plants for consumers to see when last an inspection by a recognised authority was done on the site.

Open up a two-way communication between consumers and a trusted body to:

• Report gas explosions
• Report depot and filling plants flouting safety measures
• Report substandard cylinders

This empowers consumers to play a role in driving accountability across the sector while they improve their knowledge on LPG through consistent interaction with trusted sources.

These solutions should ideally be components of a more holistic sensitisation programme jointly executed by the government, regulatory agencies, member associations and other key stakeholders; but any LPG company can think along the lines of these ideas to improve consumer confidence in LPG and their brand.