The Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) Plc Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Terminal would be completed before the end of the year, the company’s Chairman, Best Anekwe, has said.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the company, Mr. Anekwe said the terminal would bring down the price of gas, and more readily available to the Nigerian public. According to the chairman, with its own terminal, some of the charges being paid by the marketers would be eliminated and the long periods of waiting to be loaded would become a thing of the past.

His words, “Work on the LPG has reached an advanced stage and I have pleasure to inform you that by the end of this year, the terminal would have been technically commissioned.

“When completed, marketers especially our shareholders will not only have access to cheaper gas to broaden their investment base, but also benefit from the ripple effects on the company’s turnover, which is expected to translate into higher dividend and share appreciation.”

Arrangements have also been concluded by the company to build mega stations across in the large cities of the country such as Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Kano.“The decision to build some mega stations is not in anyway to compete with our shareholders in their primary area of business – retail marketing, but to serve as model station while also further entrenching the brand, NIPCO among its peers,” Mr. Anekwe said.

The company declared a dividend of N1.50 per share amounting to N46.917 million. While the company achieved a 144 per cent growth in turnover from N16.217 billion in 2005 to N39.577 billion in 2006, it posted an increase of 388 per cent in profit after tax from N341.09 million in the preceding year to N1.67 billion in 2006. NIPCO’s earnings per share rose from N1. 82 in 2005 to N 8. 88 kobo in 2006.