Business
NPDC To Produce 40 Per Cent LPG
The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) will be producing 40 per cent of the nation’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, before the end of the year.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed this in a statement by its Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, last Thursday.
The statement said that the NPDC was set to unveil the largest LPG and Propane Storage and Dispensing Facility in Oredo, Benin City.
It said it was part of concerted efforts to fast track the consumption of LPG in the country.
Also in the statement, the Managing Director of NPDC, Mr Yusuf Matashi, said the inauguration of the gas bay would be a huge revenue stream for the Federal Government.
According to him, the facility, which is an extension of the Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) plant, had the capacity to dispense 330 tonnes of LPG and 300 tonnes of Propane daily.
He added that it would also dispense 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscfg/d) and 260 barrels per day Condensate from the IGHF plant.
He said that the facility was centrally positioned to supply LPG to Lagos, the South-South; South-East and to the North in order to grow its consumption across the country.
Matashi noted that currently NPDC was the largest supplier of gas to the domestic market with about 90 per cent of gas supply targeted at power generation to drive the nation’s economy.
“We are paying greater focus on our 100 per cent assets production. NPDC assets will deliver a lot in terms of meeting its (crude oil and gas) volume targets.
“We currently contribute 10 per cent to daily national production and by end of 2019, the company is looking at 15 per cent contribution to daily national production.
“NPDC’s production outlook for 2019/2020 was on the bright side, the company is aggressively pursuing its drilling and field development programmes as approved by the management of NNPC,” he said.
He revealed that the company had oil reserve base of 3.6 billion barrels and gas reserve of 15 trillion cubic feet from its involvement in 29 concessions- 22 Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) and 7 Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs).
He explained that the flagship Upstream subsidiary of NNPC would continue to lead exploration and production company of choice going forward.
Matashi said that NPDC maintained cordial relations with regulatory agencies, such as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), adding that the company had maintained its remittance of royalties and Petroleum Profit Tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
He said that NPDC and its various host communities were living in peace due to the company’s commitment to sustainable community development policy.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
