No sub-Saharan African terminal can unload a full LPG supertanker cargo, ARDA warns

Sub-Saharan Africa has no terminal that can take the whole of a Very Large Gas Carrier (VLGC) load, about 45,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), according to the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA), which holds its third LPG Forum in Dar es Salaam on November 24–25.

Across Africa, only about 20 LPG storage sites can hold 10,000 tonnes or more, and stocks often meet no more than 10 days of demand, ARDA executive secretary Anibor Kragha wrote in an opinion piece published by Tanzania’s Daily News on November 5. Most of the region’s LPG is bought on the spot market in small cargoes without long-term contracts, he said.

Regional demand is growing quickly. Sub-Saharan Africa consumed 6.4mn tonnes of LPG in 2025, or 4.8kg per person, against more than 50kg in North Africa, and demand rose 12% that year, according to Kragha. He cited a forecast by consultancy CITAC Africa that regional demand will nearly triple to 17mn tonnes by 2045. LPG accounts for 76% of new clean-cooking access in sub-Saharan Africa, he said.

LPG import prices peaked in March at 90% above their 2025 average in East Africa and 70% above in West Africa after the Strait of Hormuz closed, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which noted that few countries hold strategic LPG reserves. Tanzania, which hosts the forum, responded to the price spike by removing VAT on imported LPG cylinders and bulk LPG storage facilities, African Business reported. Tanzania has distributed about 400,000 subsidised LPG cylinders to rural communities and public institutions under a national strategy targeting 80% clean-cooking use by 2034.

A full VLGC cargo is equivalent to about two and a half days of sub-Saharan Africa’s 2025 consumption. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, with a combined population of more than 250mn, consumed 25,000 tonnes and 28,000 tonnes respectively in 2025, together barely more than one VLGC cargo, Kragha noted.

New capacity is coming, but in smaller units. Argus Media’s Global LPG Storage Survey, published in May, lists 10 sub-Saharan storage projects with combined capacity of about 180,000 tonnes due to start up in 2026–28. The largest, of 24,000–30,000 tonnes in South Africa, Kenya, Gabon and Tanzania, each would still hold less than a full VLGC cargo.

Recent additions remain small. Nigerian energy conglomerate Sahara Group has commissioned the first 6,000-tonne phase of a planned 12,000-tonne terminal at Tema in Ghana, which received a 5,000-tonne maiden cargo, while privately held Nigerian gas infrastructure group Asiko Energy Holdings is targeting a first cargo in November at a 5,000-tonne LPG and propane terminal in Lagos.

Two terminals under development will be able to berth VLGCs, though neither will initially be able to hold a full cargo. Tanzanian LPG distributor Taifa Gas is completing a 30,000-tonne terminal in the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone near Mombasa, Kenya, fed by a 3.5km pipeline from the Kipevu Oil Terminal and designed for expansion to 45,000 tonnes. The project’s engineers told the state-run Kenya News Agency in October that it was slated for commissioning that month; Kragha wrote in early November that it was still being completed. The project was delayed by legal challenges over environmental and land-use approvals; Kenya’s Environment and Land Court struck out the latest petition in November 2025. Singapore-headquartered LPG trader and shipowner Petredec’s terminal at Tanga in Tanzania, with 24,000 tonnes of storage, is due to open in 2027, according to Argus.

ARDA said it is working with the Global LPG Partnership (GLPGP), a UN-backed public-private partnership, on a $1bn clean-cooking fund, engaging African development finance institutions and ARDA members to build a project pipeline in which VLGC-capable terminals are the lead category. The two organisations first announced plans for the fund ahead of the IEA’s clean-cooking summit in Paris in May 2024; Kragha described the fund as still in progress.

The Dar es Salaam forum, co-hosted with the World Liquid Gas Association, runs under the theme “Unlocking Africa’s LPG Potential: A Catalyst for Industrialisation, Energy Security and an Inclusive Energy Transition”. ARDA, now in its 20th year and with about 85 members, says its Investment Forum screens projects and matches bankable ones with financiers including Afreximbank, the Africa Finance Corporation, Standard Bank and Mauritius Commercial Bank.

See IntelliNews: Tanzania’s Taifa Gas nears completion of $124mn Mombasa LPG terminal
See IntelliNews: Ghana commissions first phase of 12,000-tonne LPG storage terminal amid clean-cooking push
See IntelliNews: Nigeria’s Asiko targets November cargo at 5,000-tonne Lagos LPG terminal
See IntelliNews: Tanzania’s clean cooking initiative set to slow down due to Iran war